Wasting Them
by callmebiles
Summary: McKenly certainly didn't sign up for the Supernatural life, however, she's in it, and she doesn't mind it. As long as she has her best friend by her side, she is as prepared as any. When her best friend's father goes missing, they have to do anything possible to find him, including getting back the person she hated most. (Previously Wasted; being rewritten)
1. 101

**~101 ~ 3514**

"Dean! Look out!"

"What?" The man replied, confused.

"Behind you, dumbass!" The woman shouted before throwing the shot gun towards Dean. She watched as he caught it and nearly fell into the grave they had been digging. "A little grace would probably save your ass!"

Dean caught himself before falling, steadied quickly on both feet, and shot the grey-haired ghost behind him. "We can't all be as awesome as you, Ken!" Dean shouted.

McKenly smirked and resumed her digging. "Damn right."

"How's it going down there?" He asked, looking into the hole.

"I'm trying. I can only dig so fast." She groaned. "Why do I get stuck with all the dirty work? You're the dude." McKenly stuck the shovel into the dirt, hitting solid wood beneath it.

"Dude, yes. Gentlemen, rarely."

McKenly could hear the cockiness in his voice. She rolled her eyes and grabbed the shovel, using it as a lever to crack open the coffin. McKenly grabbed the salt and light fluid she had set about her and poured both on the bones. Her head shot up at the sound of another shot being fired. "Dean? You alright?" she called.

"It's gettin' pissed. Light 'er up, Ken!" He begged.

McKenly flicked up her zippo and started its flame. "Eat hell, you son of a bitch." McKenly sneered, dropping her lighter into the coffin, making it catch fire. As the flames erupted into the air, she didn't move her hand quick enough and her had got slightly scorched. McKenly cursed.

The ghost screamed out in pain from above.

Dean let out a breath.

McKenly turned her head and looked up seeing that he was laying on the ground, his back turned to her, but his head was a little over the edge of the grave. She raised a brow. "You let it get the upper hand?"

Dean turned his head showing McKenly a glare. "Shut up." He said, pushing himself off the ground. "Or I might just leave you down there."

McKenly laughed. "And risk the chance of your partner getting caught by the fuzz? You would never." She said, matter-of-factly.

Dean rolled his eyes and reached an arm down into the grave.

McKenly smiled, realizing that she had won. She grabbed his hand and used it to help her climb up. "Besides, I obviously just saved your ass."

"I wouldn't have needed it if you had loaded this thing right." He said, tossing McKenly back her gun.

"I loaded it perfectly fine." She fought, picking up her duffel of other necessary supplies to walk back to the Impala. "My gun is always loaded right. I learned from the best."

"'Bout time you admit that, sweetheart."

"Oh, I love it when you use pet names." McKenly fake-swooned.

The two would always flirt with each other. Hardly a word passed between them that wasn't suggestive. However, none of it ever led to anything. They were partners. Friends. Best friends. Known each other as long as they could remember so they were both okay with that. Dean would have his normal hot night and McKenly spent those nights alone. McKenly didn't like the idea of sleeping around and she had too much self respect to let herself become one of Dean's one night stands. That and she had only ever been with one guy that she went out with. The family had been in the same town long enough for some sort of strong relationship to bloom.

The Edens and the Winchesters were best friends before all the supernatural bullshit came to life. They hadn't even known of any of it. At least, until Mary's and McKenly's parents' deaths. That was when John took in McKenly. He told her that the same thing that killed Mary, killed her parents, too. John promised he was going to find whoever did it and he was going to kill them. So, of course, John being the only form of a guardian that McKenly had left, she had to go with him. Not that she minded. The Winchesters were her second family. McKenly looked to John like she would her own father. Or, how she would think that she would see him. McKenly didn't remember her own father much. She was only four when the accident happened.

"So, McKenly." Dean said, grabbing McKenly from her thoughts. "Where to next?"

McKenly shrugged her shoulders.

Dean slammed the Impala's trunk down and leaned against his car.

McKenly copied him, crossing her arms over her chest, minding her burnt hand. "You wanna try your dad again?" McKenly suggested. "Maybe he's found something."

Dean nodded, sticking his hands in his pockets for his cell phone. He dialed the number and waited for an answer.

McKenly climbed onto the trunk to sit on it. She was hopeful that John would answer the call. McKenly was getting just as worried as Dean was. Her hopes were destroyed when Dean closed his phone and cursed under his breath. McKenly sighed, shrugging. "Maybe he's just busy with his own case."

"You think he woulda picked up a freakin' phone by now."

McKenly nodded, agreeing. "Yeah, but he's _your_ dad. The both of you love to pick up and leave without a word to anyone. Sometimes for days at a time."

"It's been three weeks, Ken."

"Not the point. He's an adult."

"I don't know." Dean sighed. "I just - I have a bad feeling about this one. I think we're gonna need some help."

McKenly shook her head. "Don't say it." She begged. "Dean, we can do this. Just you and me, like it has been."

"I think we need to get Sam."

McKenly groaned, rolling her eyes. "Is there any possible way that I could talk you out of this?" she asked.

Dean moved his head from side to side. "Sorry, sourpuss."

McKenly pushed herself off of the trunk and walked around to the passenger side door. She climbed into the car and dug through the glove compartment for some burn heal.

"You get yourself?" Dean asked, gesturing to her hand when he got into the car.

"No, I just like the way it feels. It's a great moisturizer." McKenly replied shortly.

Dean sighed. "Look, I know you're not all that happy about this 'Sam thing,' but you don't have to be an ass to me." Dean complained.

McKenly humphed in her head, rubbing some of the cream on her burn. It felt immensely cool on her burned flesh, but quickly faded.

"Can you at least tell me why you're not Team Sam?"

"He left us." McKenly said, slamming the glove compartment and turning her body in the seat to look at Dean straight on.

"You think I don't remember that?"

"Sam fought your dad about being able to leave. So much that I can still hear them shouting. You really think that he wants to come back?" McKenly asked, raising her voice slightly. "Sam made his decision. He didn't want this anymore and I don't want him back. If he even comes with us, he'll just leave again once we find John." McKenly paused. "If we find him."

"We'll find him." Dean stressed. "But if we don't, I'm gonna need Sam. Maybe this is a chance for us to get back to being a family again."

McKenly closed her eyes, rubbing at them. "Some fucked up family."

"I'm tryin' here." Dean pled.

McKenly looked to him, noticing how he looked nearly desperate. McKenly groaned and relaxed back into her seat. "Fine."

Dean laughed to himself, reaching to turn on the car.

"But we are stopping to sleep first. I am going to need a good night's sleep if I'm going to be acting civil towards Samuel."

Dean drove the car onto the main road to begin his search for motels. "Make sure you drop the 'Samuel' crap. You know he hates it."

McKenly smiled. "Oh, I know."

Dean smirked. "That's my girl."

The blonde raised an eyebrow that Dean saw.

"You know what I mean." Dean said, earning a disbelieving look from McKenly. "You know what…" Dean reached for the radio dial to turn up the music.

McKenly smiled at his awkwardness and turned to the window, leaning her head on the door. She felt her eyes get heavier, but tried to force them to stay open. She couldn't fight them for long and passed out on the drive.

**! #$# !**

_**20 Years Earlier…**_

"_Mommy!" The little girl cried. _

_Her father was tackling her onto her twin bed with pink sheets, trying to tickle her. _

_The girl laughed and tried to avoid her father's tickles. "Daddy, stop!" she squealed. The girl jumped off her bed and ran towards her door. The girl ran into a woman standing at the door with an 'oomph'. She backed away from the woman, pushing her light blonde hair out of her face. "Sorry, Mommy." _

"_McKenly Olivia Eden, it is way past your bedtime. What in the world are you still doing awake?" The woman asked, crouching down to be at the girl's level._

"_I can't sleep, Mommy. Daddy's tickling me." _

_The girl's father snuck up behind her and tickled her again. _

_McKenly jumped into her mother's arms with a high-pitched laugh._

"_Is that so?" Her mom asked, standing to her feet. _

"_I have no idea what she is talking about." Her father said, smiling big at his wife._

"_Kenneth, you know that she has to get some sleep. It's really too late for her to be up." _

_The man moved forward to kiss his wife's forehead. "I'm sorry, Susan." He took his daughter from her and wrapped his arms around her. "Come on, Moe. Mommy says it's time for bed. _

_McKenly awhed, protesting. _

"_I know, but tomorrow, we are going out with the neighbors to the zoo." He said, trying to make the girl excited, but she only pouted. Kenneth put McKenly down on her bed. _

"_I don't wanna go. Dean is mean to me." She crossed her arms over her chest. _

_Kenneth just laughed. "Don't take it to heart, honey. It only means that he likes you." _

"_Likes me?" she questioned, raising her eyebrows. "Yuck." McKenly said, sticking her tongue out, making her parents laugh. _

"_Alright, now. Let's get to bed." Susan said from behind her husband._

_McKenly laid down on in the bed, that, to her, was huge. _

_Kenneth tucked her into her comforter. "Where's Bunny?" he asked. _

_McKenly reached behind her to grab her stuffed pink bunny. It was worn out so much from trips to the playground and many nights of sleeping on it. _

"_Got him?" Kenneth asked, earning a nod from the girl. "Good." _

"_Goodnight, sweetheart." Her mom said._

"_Sleep well, Moe. We'll see you in the morning." _

"_Night, Mommy. Night, Daddy." McKenly said, yawning and turning onto her side. _

_Kenneth and Susan crept out of the room, leaving the door open just a crack so that some light was able to shine into the room._

_McKenly was very close to finally falling asleep when she heard a floorboard creak. She opened her eyes to see in the dark the best that she could. "Daddy?" She asked. _

_The figure shushed her, opening its eyes. They were a glowing yellow. _

_McKenly knew her parents didn't have yellow eyes. She screamed loudly. _

_Both parents quickly ran into the room. "McKenly?!" The shouted. Then they looked to the tall shadow standing in the middle of the room and closing in on their daughter. _

"_Who the hell are you?" Kenneth asked. _

_The figure turned to the adults and raised his hand, palm up. They both flew hard towards the wall. _

_McKenly watched from her bed as her parents were stuck to the wall and were somehow sliding up. They stopped on the ceiling where they started to bleed. McKenly cried, not knowing what else to do. _

_Suddenly the figure disappeared. _

"_Mommy? Daddy?" _

"_Moe…" Her father called, his voice strained. "Run!" He managed to scream before he burst into flames. _

_McKenly couldn't listen to her father. She couldn't even move. She was too scared to know what to do. _

"_McKenly!" A voice called from the hallway. _

_The little girl was still crying and couldn't call out to it. _

_John Winchester burst through the door. He looked at her, and then to the flaming ceiling with her parents being burned alive. He cursed under his breath. "McKenly, come on!" he said, walking to her quickly and reaching out for her. _

_McKenly grabbed her bunny and climbed into John's arms. She cried silently into his shoulder and he left the room, McKenly's eyes never once leaving the ceiling until she couldn't see it anymore. _

_John ran from the house and down to his own boys, where they sat on the hood of the Impala, Dean holding onto Sam. The man set McKenly down on the car next to Dean and took Sam from the boy. _

_McKenly continued to cry. "Where's my Mommy and Daddy?" _

_John looked to the girl and sighed. He moved Sam to one arm and put his other around McKenly. _

_McKenly leaned into John, knowing he was safe. She felt a hand touch hers, and looked to it seeing Dean hold it tightly. She moved her head back to lean on John and closed her eyes. It scared her that all she could see were a pair of glowing yellow orbs looking right at her. _

**! #$# !**

McKenly shot up quickly in bed, unaware of her surroundings. She started gasping for air, suddenly feeling like she was in a room full of smoke and flame. McKenly coughed until it started to hurt.

Dean slowly sat up in his bed, still only half-awake.

McKenly's last cough turned quickly into a sob. At this point, she noticed that she had already been crying with tears running down her cheeks.

"Ken?" Dean questioned, groggily, turning to sit on the edge of his bed. He scratched at his bare chest. Dean reached to turn on the light on the nightstand in the middle of the two beds. "McKenly? What's wrong?" He asked. Dean pushed himself out of his bed, rushing to his friend's side when he noticed she was crying. He sat down next to McKenly and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, hugging her.

McKenly's tears didn't stop their descent from her eyes, but she was crying silently know. She turned into his shoulder and held onto his waist for dear life.

Dean shushed his friend to stop her from crying. "It's alright." He soothed. "It was only a dream."

"It wasn't a dream." She replied, calming slightly, hoping she could stop crying altogether. "It was a memory." McKenly hated it when Dean saw her cry. She thought that he would begin to think that she was weak and couldn't handle this job or that she wasn't brave enough. It was only this dream. This dream didn't allow her to hold back her emotions. Not when everything would come back to her all at once and she would see them so vividly. "It was that night." She clarified, knowing that Dean would understand exactly which night she was talking about.

Dean leaned back in the bed, against the headboard, putting his feet up, and pulling McKenly with him.

McKenly laid down and continued to hug him.

"It's alright, Ken. I swear to you, we will get the son of a bitch." Dean promised.

McKenly nodded against his chest, as her tears slowly began to stop and she relaxed. She furrowed her brow. "Where the hell are we?" McKenly asked, noticing that she was in a different place from where she fell asleep originally.

"Motel. Fort Stockton, Texas."

"Dean, I fell asleep in the car."

"You did, and you wouldn't wake up when I got here, so I, uh, I carried you." He said, nervously, earning a light laugh from McKenly. "What?"

"Nothing."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Will you just get some sleep?

McKenly nodded. "Thanks, Dean." She listened to the sound of Dean's heartbeat, feeling his chest moving up and down from his breathing. McKenly managed to stay focused on those two things and instantly fell back to sleep.

**! #$# !**

The next morning, McKenly woke up slowly, taking in her surroundings. Remembering where she was, McKenly was quite surprised by her position. Her arms were still wrapped tightly around Dean and her head was laying on his chest, as he slept soundly. McKenly backed away quickly.

Dean woke with a start, reaching under the pillow for his knife. When he couldn't find it, he took a breath, looking around him. Dean looked to McKenly sitting on the other edge of the bed he was on and then the bed he got up from last night.

McKenly scratched at the back of her neck, completely embarrassed.

Once Dean figured things out, he seemed calm about the situation. "Well, _that_ was probably the _best_ sleep I've had in a long time." He stated, confidently.

McKenly rolled her eyes and scoffed at him, getting up from the bed.

"What?" He asked, raising his arms to the side.

McKenly grabbed her bookbag from the floor and headed towards the bathroom.

"What?" Dean repeated, wanting to get an answer from her.

The blonde grabbed a shirt she knew as Deans from on top of the dresser and threw it at him. She went into the bathroom, slammed the door, started the shower, and leaned against the wall nearby. McKenly sighed. _Did he actually enjoy that?_ She thought, throwing her head back.

There was a knock at the door.

"Ken?" Dean called. When she didn't respond, Dean called again through the door. "McKenly?"

McKenly let out her breath. "Yeah?" she said.

"Uh, I'm gettin' wheels up in thirty."

McKenly nodded her head to Dean's request, even though he couldn't see. She was thankful that he hadn't tried to talk about what happened. McKenly couldn't believe that he said that he liked sleeping with her. Sure, nothing happened, and they were just sleeping, but they haven't slept in the same bed together since they were kids. It definitely wasn't the same as it was back then. McKenly had tried hard to avoid the feeling that she like sleeping with him and Dean comes right out and said that he did.

McKenly showered quickly, giving Dean time to jump in before they took off. She knew she wasn't driving so she took a beer out of the fridge and took a big swig of it.

Dean came out of the bathroom to see her with a beer in her hand, half gone. "You're starting a little early today, don't you think?" Dean asked.

McKenly just glared at him, raising an eyebrow.

Dean laughed to himself throwing his clothes into his duffel bag.

McKenly finished the bottle in her hand and slammed it down on the table.

Dean looked at her for a moment, astonished to see her down a cold one so quickly and so early in the morning. "Uh, you ready?"

McKenly nodded, grabbing what was left of the six-pack from the fridge and reaching for the strap on her bag. Unfortunately, she had forgotten to zip it back up and everything inside came spilling out. McKenly groaned setting the beer down, and crouching to the floor to pick everything up. When she believed that she had everything, she stood up to close it, but her eyes caught on Dean.

Dean was holding a worn-out piece of pink fabric between his hands.

McKenly furrowed her brow, looking closer, realizing that it was her stuffed rabbit. Her eyes widened. "Shit." McKenly cursed under her breath, rushing forward to reach for her childhood toy.

Dean pulled the rabbit away.

"Dean, I'm not playin' this game with you." McKenly threatened. She got closer to him, but Dean just put it over his head so that she couldn't reach it. McKenly tried to get it, standing on her toes, but he was a whole head taller than her. She tried reaching for it until she noticed how close the two were and quickly backed away. McKenly sighed. "We gotta get goin'." She said, plainly.

Dean looked to her and down at the fabric in his hands. He held it out to her with a smile on his face. "I can't believe that you still have that thing."

McKenly shrugged her shoulders, but nodded, grabbing the rabbit from his hands. "It's the only thing that I have left of them. I like to think even you know what that's about." McKenly didn't look to him and stuffed the rabbit back into the bottom of her bookbag.

Dean didn't respond.

Between him finding her rabbit and them sleeping together, McKenly didn't want to show Dean that she was embarrassed. She knew that he was probably mocking her in his head anyway, and she didn't want him doing it out loud.

Little did she know, Dean actually respected her for hanging onto the animal for so long. He actually felt incredibly bad for slightly teasing her about her rabbit. Dean put his bag over his shoulder and grabbed his keys. "Let's roll."


	2. 102

**~102 ~ 3442**

McKenly had a hard time even facing him in the car. She kept her distance, keeping to her side of the car, leaning against the door. They didn't speak much, except when he asked if she was hungry. They'd stop at a taco join or a diner, eat in silence, and be on their way. They didn't talk, but it seemed like Dean would occasionally look over her way and start to say something. Only after a moment, he would change his mind, sigh, and return back to his food. McKenly wasn't sure if she wanted him to say anything or not. Part of her thought the talk would just make things worse. The other part missed the fun, sarcastic banter with her best friend.

In just about a day, the two had arrived just outside of Sunny California in a town called Ehrenberg. The two stopped to pick up burgers and take them to a motel where they would stay for the night.

McKenly groaned internally, not wanting to stop and spend another night alone with Dean. As much as she didn't want to, McKenly thought that getting Sam might ease the tension and put another person between them. "I could drive for a bit. If you wanted to keep going. I could get us there by morning."

Dean hesitated.

"Do you not trust me with your car?"

"I trust you just fine. We need to talk before we have Sam. Have an actual conversation about what happened instead of grunting at each other."

McKenly scoffed. "I'm not really a fan of chick flicks."

Dean laughed, understanding.

"Besides, there really isn't anything that we need to talk about."

"You haven't talked to me all day and I'm pretty sure it's not laryngitis."

McKenly opened her door and pushed herself out of the car. She walked towards the lobby to get a room.

"Are you gonna ignore me forever?" Dean yelled after his friend.

McKenly turned around, walking backwards, and throwing her hands up to the side. "You wouldn't be able to stay away from me for that long!" she shouted back, smirking. She turned back around and walked into the small, undecorated lobby.

An old man sat on a stool behind a tall desk. He looked up from his papers, barely noticing her, but did a double take and smiled.

"Hey, there, Miss." He said, his smile turning into something creepy.

McKenly smiled back, tightly. On the inside, she was disgusted, but she showed a flirty smile. McKenly walked up to the table and leaned her elbows on it, being sure to flash a little bit of cleavage. She certainly hated doing this, but it was the easiest way to get a discounted motel room. "Hi," She said, breathily. "I need a room. Only, my car broke down a bit up the road and I don't have much cash. Do you think I can get a room for…" McKenly reached into her back pocket and pulled out a few twenties. "...this?"

The man laughed. "Well, lucky for you, we've got a special goin' on for pretty ladies like yourself. Room'll cost just that." He said.

McKenly rolled her eyes internally, but kept her smile. "Thank you." She said. When she realized that the man wasn't moving for a key, she leaned down on the desk and grabbed one. When McKenly stood up again, she stuffed a twenty into his shirt pocket. She winked and walked out of the lobby being sure to sway her hips a little more than usual. McKenly sighed as she pushed herself out of the door, going back to the car.

"How much?" Dean asked.

McKenly smirked at him, opening the truck to retrieve their bags. "Twenty." She bragged, before realizing. "Not that I'm talking to you, of course."

Dean laughed. "Well, I'm proud of ya."

"Proud?"

"Yeah. You've got that whole...sexy thing to you,"

"I'm not sexy." She said shaking her head and gesturing to her jeans, old tank top, and military jacket.

"If you were to turn it on for a few minutes, I'm sure you could get more. For free even." Dean suggested.

McKenly bit her lip and turned her head to hide her blush. She walked towards the room she grabbed and unlocked the door. As soon as McKenly got into the room, she dropped her bag on the ground and dove for the bed, closing her eyes.

Dean walked around the room and sighed. "Ken, get up."

"I'm trying to sleep." She pointed out, muffled by the pillow.

"No, you're not."

"How would you know?"

"I know you. I know that you would never sleep in your jeans, and I know that you'd never let a cheeseburger go cold."

McKenly turned her head and opened her eyes to glare at Dean.

"Glare at me all you want, sweetheart, but you're going to talk to me about what's bugging you."

McKenly sat up and crossed her legs. She reached her hand out for Dean to give her a cheeseburger.

Dean handed her the bag and leaned against the dresser, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I'm not good at awkward. Really, really not. It wigs me out and then i start sweating, which we both know isn't pretty."

Dean raised a brow. "Ken, the point."

"We, uh, we cuddled."

Dean laughed. "So?"

"It's not funny, Dean." McKenly scolded.

Dean quickly wiped the smile off of his face, trying to keep a straight look with her. It was hard for him though because he did find the situation funny.

"You are my best friend. I just think it's weird, is all." McKenly clarified. "Best friends, or at least us, anyway, we aren't supposed to cuddle. And we especially aren't allowed to _like it_." She stressed. "It shouldn't be 'the _best _sleep you've had in a long time'."

"If I said it wasn't, I'd be lyin'." Dean joked. "'Sides, you're making a big deal outta nothing."

"Am I?"

"Yeah. You are. You had a bad dream. I stopped you from freaking out. It worked."

"So, you thought that you'd just stay in my bed? Fall asleep with me? Just like one of your stupid one night stands?"

"Hey, you were the one who fell asleep first. I just didn't want to wake you up."

McKenly groaned. As much as she tried, she probably wasn't going to win this fight. She did feel uncomfortable about the situation, but she also knew that Dean was just trying to comfort her. She sighed. "Is there beer in the car? I'd really like a beer." she asked, standing from her bed.

Dean smiled and nodded. "I'd love a beer." He said.

"'Course you would." McKenly held out her hand for his car key that he passed over. She walked out of the room to grab the cooler out of the trunk of the car. McKenly mentally kicked herself along the way thinking how stupid she had been. As she opened the trunk, she thought she saw a shadow in the corner of her eye and quickly turned her head. Squinting through the darkness, McKenly tried to make out the shape of the shadow. A yellow glow soon showed across the lot. McKenly walked around the car, hand reaching around her back to grab the grip of her gun. The more that she walked forward, the more the glow faded away. McKenly stopped halfway to where she thought the glow was and stood there for a minute.

"Ken!" Dean shouted from inside the room.

McKenly jumped at the sound of his voice.

"'Dr. Sexy, M.D.' is on!" He called.

McKenly turned around, slowly, to see him leaning on the door frame.

"Everything okay?" Dean noticed her defensive stance and her hand's position on her gun. He took a few more steps out of the room

"Yeah." McKenly turned back to where she saw the glow, seeing nothing anymore. "We're good. I just thought I saw something." She walked back to the car to grab the cooler. "It's nothing."

Dean nodded and gently pushed her back to the room with a hand on her back. Once Dean had McKenly safe inside, he leaned out the door so he could get a look around outside. Once he thought that the coast was clear, he closed the door, locking every bit that he could, not that it would stop anything that they ever dealt with.

The two sat up against the headboard of the bed that was directly in front of the television, with their burgers, watching their guilty pleasure show.

After the show was over, Dean looked over at the clock on the nightstand. It was just around one in the morning. Dean looked back to his friend. "Alright, just so we're clear, even though you probably slept just as good as I did last night, we're sleeping in different beds?"

McKenly nodded. "I think how we're doing things is working."

"Alright then." He said, getting up off of the bed to get his duffel bag.

McKenly did the same, reaching for her sweatpants and a different t-shirt to sleep in. She quickly changed in the main room while Dean entered the bathroom. McKenly had only just pulled down her shirt when Dean entered the main room again. The two laid down on their separate beds and turned out the lights.

McKenly laid on her side, facing away from Dean's bed. She thought about the glow she saw in the parking lot. The strange glowing yellow seemed all too familiar but she couldn't place where she'd seen it. She turned over the other way, a yellow glow coming from the digits on the clock. McKenly scoffed, grabbing a pillow and placing it on top of the clock to block out the light.

McKenly laid down on her back, facing the ceiling, but all she could think about was her dream. Her parents stuck on the ceiling. Screaming. Burning. She spent the next hour trying to force herself to fall asleep, switching from one side to the next. Finally, McKenly gave up, leaning over towards Dean's bed, squinting to see if she could tell if he was awake. "Dean?" She whispered a little loudly.

Dean's bed squeaked as he shifted.

"Dean, you awake?"

"Yeah," He answered groggily, having not really been awake. "What's up?"

McKenly contemplated how to answer his question. "I can't sleep." She said, sighing, wishing that she didn't have to say it. McKenly waited a second, listening for the sound of his covers moving again.

"Come here." Dean said.

McKenly scoffed, hearing the smirk in Dean's voice. She climbed out from under her own covers and moved into his bed. McKenly curled herself into Dean's side and his arms tightened around her.

"I knew you couldn't resist me." Dean joked.

"Shut up." McKenly said, closing her eyes, and instantly relaxing with her head on his chest, which was covered this time with a shirt.

"Good night, Ken." He said with a truly caring tone in his voice. He earned a grumble in response from McKenly, and drifted off to sleep quickly.

**! #$# !**

The two of them decided to sleep in the next morning to get as much sleep as they could. McKenly would never admit it out loud, but she did think sleeping with Dean was doing her some good. Since she would never admit it aloud, she also wouldn't want Sam to know about it. If Dean was set on Sam going back to the hunting life with them, it meant they couldn't sleep together after that night.

McKenly was not at all excited about Sam coming back to work with them. He was so set on going to college, she knew he wouldn't come back. In McKenly's eyes, Sam had made his decision to leave a long time ago and he left with a fight. There was no way that he would go back to hunting even if Dean got on his knees and begged.

While Dean was in the shower, his phone beeped from the night stand.

McKenly furrowed her brow and walked to it. She picked it up and flipped it open, noticing that he had a voicemail from John. McKenly put his password in his phone and put the voicemail on speaker and listened to it. "Dean!" She called. When he didn't answer, she called a second time, louder.

The sound of the shower quickly stopped and Dean pushed open the bathroom door. He had a towel wrapped around his waist. "What?"

McKenly replayed the voicemail, this time on speaker.

"_Dean, something is starting to happen. I think it's serious. I need to try to figure out what's going on." _

"Is that Dad?" Dean asked.

McKenly nodded.

"_Be very careful, Dean. Especially with Ken. We're all in danger."_

"That's all?" Dean asked, earning a nod from McKenly. "How did I not hear this last night?" He asked, moving forward to grab the phone from her and listen to the message again.

"Maybe the sleep was way too good." McKenly said with an eyebrow raised.

Dean narrowed his eyes at her. "We need to leave. Now."

McKenly laughed. "You should, uh, probably get dressed first." She looked him up and down with a smirk on her face.

"Right." Dean pushed the phone back into McKenly's hand. "There's EVP on that and some words I can't quite make out. Figure it out. I'm getting dressed and we're out."

McKenly nodded, replaying the message. She listened to it over and over, until she was finally able to make out the words Dean couldn't quite hear. Something about the case he'd found in Jericho, California. This information would help Dean get Sam to go with them. There was no way that Sam could resist getting his dad out of serious trouble.

When Dean was dressed, the two loaded up the Impala, returned the key, and hit the road. It was less awkward for McKenly this time, having felt bad about their spat and realizing they were just sleeping. There was no relationship forming between the two and she had overdramatized the situation. In the end, McKenly really did like sharing a bed with Dean. She felt safer with him and got more sleep knowing that he was right next to her.

Granted, McKenly didn't want to get Sam to go with them, but she knew that Dean did. Sam was his brother and there was no going around that. Plus, him being around would make things easier on her because he knew a lot about the lore and was sometimes even better at figuring things out. Sam always seemed to prove that to her while he and McKenly stayed back at the hotel and John and Dean would go out on the hunts.

It was dark by the time the two reached Stanford. The Impala was stopped in front of an apartment building. Dean leaned an arm out his window and examined the building.

McKenly leaned over in the seat to do the same. "Are you sure that this is it?" She asked, unsure about it being the place.

Dean nodded. "This is exactly what he would have wanted. Something different."

McKenly shrugged, relenting. She glanced to the clock on the center console. "Dean, it's pretty late. Are you just gonna knock on the door and expect him to answer or come with us? He's the one that left, remember?"

"I know that." Dean defended. "That is why I don't plan on knocking." He reached into the glove compartment, grabbing a lock pick kit. Dean pushed himself out of the Impala, McKenly quickly followed him. The two climbed a few sets of stairs until he came to his brother's apartment. Dean got to his knees and started to pick the lock.

"Dean, you know he was a hunter, right? There's a very good chance that he could kill us before we get to say hi. Let's just wait until tomorrow."

Dean shook his head, working on the lock. An 'aha' came from him when he got the lock to click. He stood and turned the knob, but the door wouldn't open. He groaned.

McKenly smiled, realizing that Sam was smart enough to have more than a pickable lock.

Dean moved to a nearby window. He pushed up on it and it opened.

McKenly groaned, "Kinda makes the multiple locks a little unnecessary if you're just gonna leave the window open."

"Ladies first." Dean said, gesturing to the window.

McKenly threw Dean a fake smile and climbed through the open window.

Dean quickly followed after her, his feet hitting the floor with a loud thud, making McKenly turn around to glare at him.

"Smooth, slick." she whispered. "Now we should really get out of here."

Dean shook his head, putting a finger to his lips. He entered a new room, the door creaking as he pushed it to the side. A few steps in, a hand grabbed onto Dean's shoulder. Dean quickly grabbed onto the arm and held it, turning his body so he could have the upper hand. He pushed the guy towards the next room and charged at him.

McKenly quickly followed after both men, sticking to the doorways so as not to get in the way. This room had more light in it and she was able to make out the guy's face. "Sam, stop!" She called, but she only distracted Sam long enough for Dean to grab him and hold him on the ground.

"Whoa, easy, tiger." Dean joked.

Sam took a few deep breaths. "Dean?" He questioned before his focus turned to McKenly in the doorway. "Ken?"

McKenly smiled and waved lightly. "Surprise." She said, lamely, entering the room fully, standing at Dean's head.

Dean earned Sam's attention again and the older guy chuckled.

"You scared the crap out of me." Sam claimed.

"That's 'cause you're outta practice." Dean retorted.

This caused Sam to press on Dean and quickly roll him over so that Dean was being held against the floor.

Dean laughed again. "Or not." His voice was a little strained. "Get off me." Dean said, pushing Sam up.

Sam got off his brother and reached a hand down to help him to his feet. "What the hell are you two doing here?"

McKenly grabbed Dean under his arm, being an extra help in support.

"Well, I was looking for a beer." Dean said, speaking for himself. He stepped forward, grabbing onto his brother's shoulders, taking him in, almost as if he couldn't believe that he was really standing in front of him.

"Sam?" A small voice called and a light turned on. Everyone's eyes moved to check out the new voice.

"Jess, hey." Sam answered. He looked to Dean. "Dean, McKenly, this is my girlfriend, Jessica."

"Wait, you're brother Dean?" Jess said with a smile.

"And awesome friend, McKenly." McKenly joked quietly from behind Dean.

Dean smiled. "I love the smurfs." He regarded. "You know, I got to tell ya…"

"Here we go…" McKenly sighed.

"You are completely out of my brother's league."

McKenly walked forward, grabbed onto Dean's jacket collar and pulled him back. "Did 'girlfriend' not register through your thick skull?" She whispered forcefully.

"Just, let me put something on." Jess gestured back to where she came from.

"Oh, no, no. I wouldn't dream of it. Seriously."

"Sorry about him." McKenly stepped in front of him. "I'm McKenly, not that you would know at all who I am."

"Oh, I do. Sam talks about you all the time. You're practically his sister."

"Did he say that?" McKenly joked, looking back at Sam. "Anyway, we've kinda got to borrow your boyfriend here, just for a moment, if you don't mind. Some private family stuff. It was awesome meeting you."

"No." Sam said, defiantly.

"No?" McKenly looked back to Sam. "When did you grow a pair?" She asked as Sam walked over to Jess, putting a protective arm around her.

"No," Sam reiterated. "Whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of her."

McKenly looked to Dean.

Dean raised his brow and shrugged. "Okay. Um, Dad hasn't been home in a few days."

Sam took a breath. "So, he's working overtime on a 'Miller Time' shift. He'll stumble back in sooner or later."

Dean nodded.

McKenly sighed. "Sam, John's been on a _hunting trip_." She stressed. "And he hasn't been home in a few days.

Sam tensed up slightly, but his expression didn't change.

McKenly kept eye contact with him, but his eyes moved to Dean.

Jess was looking up at her boyfriend.

Sam swallowed. "Jess, excuse us."

**! #$# !**

_**So I am going to admit that there are certain aspects of this story that are exactly the same. The thing is that I did not like how I had written it last time and I feel I've grown as a writer. Hence, the re-writing. **_

_**Anyway, if you read the authors note in the old version of this then you know that the feedback from you guys will help. Just like it does any FF writer. And if you've read any of my other stories (and their reviews), I do sometimes curve the story into something you guys would like to see. I do read the reviews and appreciate them very much, you guys just probably don't get much response and I'm sorry. **_

_**Tl,dr: review and it could benefit you. **_

_**Thanks so much for reading this again!**_

_**:) Biles**_


	3. 103

**~103 ~ 3396**

Sam quickly ushered both Dean and McKenly out of his apartment and into the hallway. "This is crazy, Dean." He whispered before shutting his front door.

McKenly took the lead in walking down the many stairs they had just climbed and to the Impala, where Dean's master plan to get Sam to go with them would fall into place.

"I mean, come on, you can't just break in, in the middle of the night and expect me to hit the road with you." Sam complained.

"I'm not expecting anything." McKenly pointed out quietly.

Dean hit her shoulder lightly as they continued down the stairs, earning a glare from her. "You're not hearing me, Sammy. Dad's missing. We need your help to find him."

"You remember the poltergeist in Amherst? Or the Devil's Gates in Clifton?" Sam asked. "He was missing then, too. He's always missing, and he's always fine."

Dean stopped on the bottom stair and turned around to face his brother. "Not for this long. Now, are you coming with us, or not?"

McKenly stopped as well, noticing the boys weren't following her.

"I'm not." Sam said.

"Why not?" Dean asked, practically begging his brother.

"I swore I was done hunting. For good."

"C'mon. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't that bad." Dean reminded, continuing on his trek out to his car.

"When I told Dad I was scared of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45."

McKenly laughed, following after Sam. "Oh, that was great. You should have seen the look on your face when he handed you that gun."

Dean shot McKenly a look and her laugh died out. "What was he supposed to do?" Dean stopped just outside the door.

"I was nine years old. He was supposed to say, 'don't be afraid of the dark'."

"'Don't be afraid of the dark'?" Dean repeated, probably questioning Sam's sanity. "What? Are you kidding me? Of course, you should be afraid of the dark. You know exactly what's out there."

"Yeah, I know, but still. The way we grew up after mom was killed, and Dad's obsession to find the thing that killed her…" Sam paused. "But we still haven't found the damn thing. So we kill everything we _can_ find."

"Do you realize how many people we've saved by doing just that?" McKenly asked, stepping into their small circle. "So many lives saved because one of us, or all of us, stepped in."

Dean looked to Sam, nodding in agreement towards McKenly.

Sam scoffed. "Do you think Mom would have wanted this for us?" Sam asked Dean before he looked to McKenly. "Ken, do you think that your parents would have wanted you running around with guns, chasing after creatures of the night."

McKenly tensed up, her face hardening into a stare towards Sam. "Don't you dare bring my parents into this, Sam. This is _not _about them." She pushed her way between the boys to exit the building.

Dean quickly followed her, hand slamming on the metal door to keep it open.

"Look, all I'm saying is that we learned how to use a gun before we were teenagers." Sam tried catching up to the two. "We were melting silver to make bullets. Guys, we were raised like warriors. It was like Dad was putting us through boot camp."

"So, what are you gonna do?" Dean asked as they approached the Impala. "You just gonna go back in there, have sex with your girlfriend, and live some normal, apple-pie life?"

"No, not normal. Safe."

"Is that what it is? You were scared?" McKenly asked, still practically fuming from him bringing up her parents. "Is that why you ran away?"

"I didn't run away!" Sam argued, taking a couple steps closer to her. "I was going to college! It was Dad who said if I was gonna go that I should stay gone. And that's what I'm doing."

"Well, John is missing. And probably in some real trouble, if he's not dead already." McKenly snapped, apologizing to Dean with a look. "In order to save your father, who, by the way, replaced the father that I lost, you need to help us on this. You need to put your life on pause for just a while so we can figure this out."

Sam gave McKenly a sorrowful look. "I can't just leave, Ken."

"Sam, I can feel it. Something's wrong." Dean begged. "We can't do this alone."

"Yes, you can. You have each other. It's how it's been for years."

"Yeah, well, I don't want to."

Sam looked to both Dean and McKenly. He could tell that McKenly wasn't at all happy with him and, yet, she was still pleading a case for him to help. He sighed, giving in. "What was he hunting?"

Dean gave him a questioning look, wondering if Sam was really gonna help or not. He relented, turning to unlock his trunk. Opening it, and propping up the false bottom with a shotgun, he started digging through his stuff. "Alright, let's see." He said, looking around. "Where the hell did I put that folder?"

McKenly rolled her eyes and peeked around from the side, reaching a hand in, and grabbing the file folder to hand to him.

"So, when Dad left, why didn't you guys go with him?" Sam questioned.

"We had our own gig. This ghost thing, down in New Orleans."

Sam smirked. "Dad let you go on a hunting trip by yourselves?"

Dean paused in his attempt to flip through his papers, shooting a glance to Sam.

"You aren't giving us enough credit." McKenly said, smirking. "We can handle our own."

"Seriously. I'm twenty-six, dude." Dean said to his brother. He pulled out a few papers from the folder. "Okay. So, Dad was checking out this two-lane blacktop just outside of Jericho, California. About a month ago, this guy - " Dean handed Sam a paper with a picture on it. "They found his car, but he'd vanished. Completely MIA."

Sam read over the papers. "So, maybe he was kidnapped."

"That's what we thought. But then, here's another one in April…" Dean threw the articles into the trunk. "Another one in December '04, '03, '98, '92. There have been ten of 'em over the past twenty years." Dean took the papers back from Sam and put them away. "All men. All same five-mile stretch of road."

McKenly reached in again to grab the voice recorder she put John's voicemail on. "It started happening more and more, so John went to go poke around. That was...three weeks ago?" she questioned, looking to Dean, who nodded. "We hadn't heard from him since then, until this voicemail Dean got last night." She pressed play on the device.

"_Dean, something is starting to happen. I think it's serious. I need to try to figure out what's going on. Be very careful, Dean. Especially with Ken. We're all in danger."_

Once the message was over, Sam spoke. "You know there's EVP on that?"

McKenly nodded. "Not bad, Sam. Kinda like picking up a bike again." She said, earning a quiet laugh from Dean. "Anyway, once Dean and I noticed that. I slowed it down, worked some techy mumbo-jumbo and came up with this." McKenly pressed the play button again.

"_I can never go home."_

"Never go home." Sam repeated, thinking of a solution.

McKenly nodded, throwing the voice recorder into the trunk before Dean could close it. The three of them were still gathered around the trunk, McKenly and Dean studying Sam.

"You know," Dean started. "In almost two years, I've never bothered you. Never asked you for anything."

"And, unfortunately, since I'm not quite happy about it, we need your help." McKenly added, joining Dean as he leaned against his car.

Sam sighed. "Alright, I'll go." He nodded. "I'll help you find him. But I have to get back first thing Monday. You two, wait here." He said, turning back towards his building.

"What's first thing Monday?"

"I have an interview." Sam paused.

"What, a job interview?" Dean asked. "Skip it."

"It's a law school interview, and it's basically my entire future on a plate." Sam argued.

McKenly raised her brow. "Law school?" She questioned. "Really?"

"So, we got a deal or not?" Sam asked, ignoring McKenly's question.

The blonde looked to Dean, realizing he wasn't going to answer. McKenly knew that Dean wanted Sam to go with them long term. "Yes." She answered for Dean. "We got a deal."

Dean gave McKenly a look once Sam started making his way back into the apartment building. "What was that?"

"I was getting him to come with us. Isn't it better to have him for one job than not at all?" McKenly asked. "You're lucky you had my help at all."

Dean nodded. "Yeah, what's that about. For someone who doesn't want him to come along, you're agreeing to certain stipulations?"

McKenly shrugged. "He's your brother, Dean." She stated, moving her gaze to her fingernail to pick at it. "And for some reason that I can't begin to understand because I don't have a brother, you want him back."

"You don't like him, though, huh?"

"It's not that at all." McKenly shook her head. "I just…" She searched for the right words. "I feel betrayed by him. Sam and I spent a lot of time together when we were kids. Before John started to let me go with you, it was me and Sam, spending hours in some crappy motel room watching repeat cartoons. And then he had the fight with your dad…" She trailed off, pausing to look at him. "There one minute, and gone in the next. He was my best friend and he left us. I feel really betrayed by him."

Dean nodded, understanding.

"I love Sam, I do." I just hate that he let things get that bad, and just left them like that." McKenly sighed. "I know you want him back."

"I'm pretty sure you do, too. You want things back to normal as much as I do."

"It's not that easy for me to just let things go. But I'm willing to be civil, try to be calm, and help you. If only for a weekend."

Dean showed a one-sided smile. "I couldn't have asked for a better you, Ken."

"You could. But you wouldn't get one." McKenly joked. "I'm just too awesome." She smiled and hip-bumped him, pushing him off the car.

"You definitely are." He caught himself on his feet and moved to face McKenly. He picked her up by her waist to sit her down on the trunk of the Impala.

McKenly laughed. "Dean?" She asked. "What are you doing?" She watched as he pulled himself up to sit next to her.

Dean wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her with him to lean back so they could look at the stars.

McKenly laughed at him. "Fair warning would have been nice."

"Nah," He said, shrugging. "I like the element of surprise."

"It sure does suit you."

**! #$# !**

The three of them were about halfway to Jericho when the Impala, and Dean, needed to fill their tanks. McKenly worked on filling the Impala, and then returned to the back seat, stretching out along it.

Dean came out of the convenience store with a bag full of snacks. He tossed a bag of chips and a soda through the open rear window. "Hey!" Dean called to get Sam's attention. "You want breakfast?"

Sam turned his body slightly out of the car for just a moment before returning to rifle through Dean's cassette tape collection. "No, thanks. So how'd you pay for that stuff? You and Dad still running credit card scams?"

Dean took the nozzle out from the gas tank. "Yeah, well, hunting ain't exactly a pro-ball career."

McKenly sat up in the back seat. "'Sides, it's not our fault they send us the cards. We just apply for them."

"Yeah, and what names did you write on the application this time?"

"Uh, Bert Aframian?" Dean questioned, looking to McKenly as he walked around the car.

She nodded. "And his son, Hector."

"Scored two cards out of the deal."

"Sounds about right. What about you?" Sam asked, glancing back at McKenly as Dean climbed in the car.

"Don't need one." McKenly shrugged. "I'm always with him."

"Doesn't surprise me." Sam stated. "You got to update your cassette tape collection.

"Why?" Dean asked.

"Well, for one: they're cassette tapes." Sam held up a few tapes. "And two: Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Metallica?" He questioned, Dean grabbing the former from his hand. "It's the greatest hits of mullet rock."

Dean opened the cassette case and inserted it into the player. He glanced back at McKenly in his rearview mirror. "You got something to say about my tapes?"

McKenly shook her head. "I don't mind at all." She smiled.

"That's my girl." Dean said, making McKenly blush slightly.

Sam looked back at her and she quickly tried to hide the redness.

"Well, house rules, Sammy." Dean dropped the case back into the box. "Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cake hole."

"You know, Sammy is a chubby twelve year old." Sam clarified, passing the box back to McKenly. "It's Sam, okay?"

Dean cranked up the music a little bit as Loveless' "A Gift to the World" started to play. "Sorry, I can't hear you!" Dean shouted over the music. "The music's too loud."

**! #$# !**

Seven miles outside of Jericho, Sam had finished making a couple calls to the Jericho hospital and morgue. No one matching their father's description came up which took a load off of both McKenly's and Dean's shoulders. McKenly even saw Dean loosen up a little bit, but she knew that he was still worried.

Dean put the car in park just off of the bridge that a missing kid's car had been found abandoned. He grabbed the box of their fake badges that was kept in the glove compartment and handed one to McKenly. "Sorry, Sammy, but you don't have a badge."

McKenly laughed. "Looks like you're hanging here."

Sam sighed, relaxing in his seat.

Dean smiled at McKenly through the mirror. "Let's go." Dean said, pushing himself out of his car.

McKenly looked over the side of the bridge, noticing two divers come out from the river, probably searching for any sign of a body. There were officers who were gathered around the car, searching for evidence. McKenly listened to their conversation, hearing something about the deputy's daughter being connected to the missing guy.

Dean spoke first, gaining the deputies' attention. "You fellas had another one like this last month, didn't you?"

"And who are you?" One deputy asked.

"Federal Marshals." Dean said, flashing his badge, along with McKenly.

The deputy gave them a once over. "You two are a little young for marshals, aren't you?" he asked.

Dean laughed, "Thanks, that's awfully kind of you." He stepped towards the car. "You did have another one just like this, correct?"

"Yeah, that's right, about a mile up the road. There have been others before that." The deputy added.

"So the victim…" McKenly started. "Did you know him?"

The deputy nodded. "A town like this, everybody knows everybody."

Dean circled the car. "Any connection between the victims?"

"Besides the fact that they're all men?" McKenly added.

"No." The cop answered. "Not so far as we can tell."

"What's your theory?" McKenly moved around the car, joining Dean on the other side of it.

"Honestly, we don't know. Could be serial murder, kidnapping ring."

"Well, that is exactly the kind of crack police work I'd expect out of you guys." Dean insulted, earning a slap to the gut from McKenly.

"Thank you for your time." McKenly enforced. "And keep up the good work." She smiled, before pulling on Dean's jacket, signalling that they were leaving. McKenly hurried off a few steps in front of Dean.

Dean caught up with her in a few large strides. "Ken, what was that for?"

"You can't talk to cops like that, Dean." McKenly stopped, turning to face him.

"C'mon." Dean begged. "They don't really know what's going on here. We're all alone on this."

"That doesn't mean that you have to be a sarcastic asshole to people who are just trying to do their job. Which is surprisingly hard when they don't know the whole story."

"Exactly. They don't know everything. If we're gonna find Dad, we've got to get to the bottom of this thing ourselves."

McKenly glanced up past Dean and cleared her throat.

Dean turned, seeing a sheriff and two agents standing behind him.

"Can I help you two?" the sheriff asked.

"No, sir." Dean said. "We were just leaving." As the feds walked past them he greeted them with some bogus names. Dean and McKenly walked back towards the Impala. McKenly was able to fill Sam in on what happened as Dean pulled onto the main street of the small town to stop for food.

Sam wasn't all too fond of the fact that Dean was mouthing off to the cops either.

McKenly laughed as she realized that she and Sam were agreeing on something. They walked down the street, running into a couple girls who were putting up missing posters. "Maybe that's the deputy's daughter." She inferred.

"We can't know that for sure." Sam said.

McKenly shrugged. "No harm in trying to find out." She walked up to one of the girls. "You must be Amy." she said, looking behind her to see Sam and Dean copy her actions.

The girl nodded. "Yeah."

"Troy told us about you." McKenly smiled. "We're his cousins. I'm McKenly, this is Sam and Dean." She said, gesturing to each one of the boys.

"He never mentioned you to me." Turning to walk down the street.

McKenly laughed, following her. "That's our Troy, I guess."

"We're not around much." Dean clarified. "We're up in Modesto."

"We're looking for him, too, and we're kind of asking around." McKenly insisted, walking in front of her to stop her trek down the street.

Her friend came up and put a comforting hand on her elbow. "Hey, are you okay?" she asked, earning a nod from Amy.

"Do you mind if we ask you a couple questions?" Sam asked.

"Sure." Amy answered.

"Is there a diner or something we could go to so we can talk more privately?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, just down here." Amy said, pointing across the street and walking in that direction. After walking into the diner, they approached a booth against the window. Amy and her friend taking one side, McKenly and Dean taking the other, and Sam pulling up a chair at the end.

"Why don't you tell us about the last time you spoke to him?" McKenly suggested.

"I was on the phone with Troy." Amy explained. "He was driving home. Then he said that he would call me right back, and he never did."

"He didn't say anything strange or out of the ordinary?" Sam asked.

Amy shook her head. "No, nothing I can remember."

McKenly noticed that Dean put his arm around the back of the seat behind her, and leaned forward with her elbows on the table, assuming that Dean was going to let her try to get something out of them. "We really wanna find Troy." She said. "The way Troy disappeared… I just don't feel right about it. If you have heard anything, that you can think about, you can tell us."

The two girls looked at each other.

Dean leaned forward, slightly, noticing their hesitation. "What?" He asked. "What is it?"

"Well, it's just…" Amy's friend started. "I mean, with all these guys going missing, some people talk."

"About what?" Dean and McKenly asked at the same time.

McKenly look at him, blushed and looked away.

"It's kind of this local legend." The girl explained. "This one girl, got murdered out on Centennial. It was decades ago, only…" She paused. "Only some people think that she's still out there."

Sam nodded for her to go on.

"She hitchhikes, and whoever picks her up, they disappear. Forever."

Sam and Dean looked to each other, while McKenly sat between them nodding to the girls, happy that they had something more to go on to solve this case.


	4. 104

**~104 ~ 3634**

The three hunters went over to the public library to look and see if there actually had been any murders on the highway. Unfortunately there weren't any murders, but Sam had managed to find out about a suicide. A woman, Constance, had jumped off of a bridge after she had found her two young children had drowned in their bath. Her husband, Joseph Welch, had given his statement that Constance didn't want to live in a world without her children.

Their next stop was to be the bridge that they were at earlier, since it was the one Constance had jumped from in 1981. Without all the cops around, it would be a lot easier for the three of them to get a look around.

After they arrived, Dean went to the railing of the bridge and looked over it. "So this is here Constance took the swan dive."

McKenly nodded. "Kinda sad when you think about it. Woman loses her kids and then offs herself."

"Do you think that Dad would have been here?" Sam asked, looking over at Dean.

Dean nodded. "Well, he is chasing the same story and we're chasing him." He took a few steps away from the rail.

"Okay, so now what?" Sam asked, he and McKenly following after Dean.

"We're going to keep digging until we find him." McKenly stated as if it were the obvious thing to do.

"Exactly." Dean agreed. "It might take a while."

Sam stopped in his spot. "Dean, I told you. I've got to get back by - "

"Monday." Dean finished, stopping and turning to face his younger brother. "Right. The interview."

McKenly stood next to Dean, facing Sam but looking at Dean. She could see it in his face that he didn't want Sam to go back to school. McKenly knew that Sam being around was only temporary which was exactly wy she hadn't made any effort so far to catch up with him.

"Yeah." Sam said.

"Yeah, I forgot." Dean insisted. "You're really serious about this, aren't you?"

"Dean…" McKenly warned, noticing that it sounded like Dean was trying to instigate an argument.

"You think you're just gonna become some lawyer, marry your girl?" Dean suggested.

"Maybe. Why not?"

"Does Jessica know the truth about you? I mean, does she know about the things you've done?"

Sam took a step towards his brother and McKenly. "No, and she's not ever going to know."

"Well, that's healthy." McKenly mumbled quietly.

"What?" Sam snapped towards McKenly.

"You can pretend all you want, Sammy, but you're gonna have to face up to who you really are." Dean said, turning to walk further down the bridge.

"Who is that?" Sam followed.

"You're one of us." Dean said, gesturing between himself and McKenly.

"No, I'm not like you. This is not going to be my life." Sam hurried to step in front of Dean and McKenly to stop them.

McKenly stepped in front of Dean. "This wasn't going to be my life either, Sam. It wasn't going to be any of our lives, but it is. And you have a responsibility to - "

"To what, McKenly?" Sam asked, "My father? And his crusade?"

Dean stepped closer to McKenly, trying to get in between her and Sam.

"If it weren't for pictures, I would even know what my mom looks like. And what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed them, my mom, your parents…"

"Don't talk about my parents, Sam!" McKenly shouted, clenching her fist against her side, preparing to let it fly into his face.

"They're gone. They aren't coming back!" Sam said, finally.

Dean grabbed Sam by his collar and shoved him up against a metal support of the bridge.

"Dean!" McKenly shouted at him. "Stop it!"

"Don't talk about our parents like that." Dean threatened.

McKenly looked down the bridge where they were supposed to be headed to investigate. "Dean." she tried getting her attention. "Dean, seriously. Stop it."

"What?" Dean snapped, looking her direction. He followed her gaze, seeing a woman in a white dress standing on the railing. "Sam." He said, gaining the other boy's attention. Both approached McKenly, Dean moving to stand in front of her.

The woman looked their way, and then turned back to the water just before taking the step off of the bridge.

Sam bolted towards the woman, Dean and McKenly following. All three peered over the railing, seeing no sign of the woman.

"Where'd she go?" Dean asked.

"I don't know." Sam admitted. Behind them, Dean's car's engine started and the headlights turned on.

McKenly and the boys moved to the middle of the bridge, staring at the vehicle. "Dean, who's driving the car?" she asked.

Dean reached into his pocket, pulling out his set of keys and dangling them between his fingers. They watched as the car jerked forward, its tires squealing, and headed straight for them.

"Dean?" McKenly questioned, wondering what was going on.

"Come on. Let's go!" Sam urged.

Dean grabbed onto McKenly's hand and pulled her along, running quickly away from the car. Even running as fast as they could, the car was still speeding up faster than they could. Dean looked over the edge of the bridge.

"Are you crazy?!" McKenly shouted at him, knowing exactly what was going through his head.

"Hope you can swim!" he shouted. The three ran to the side and jumped over the railing.

McKenly lost her grip on Dean's hand and fell into the water on her own. Having not braced herself to land in the water, she didn't slow down on entering it. McKenly sank quickly to the bottom and hit her forehead on a rock. She was dazed for a moment as her senses tried to regain themselves. McKenly tried to surface herself, taking in a deep breath for the moment that she was over the water.

"Ken!" Dean shouted, seeing her over the water.

McKenly wasn't able to keep herself up and started to sink again.

"McKenly!" Dean hurried back into the water and swam towards her. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to the edge of the water. "Ken, you okay?"

McKenly turned her head and coughed up quite a bit of the nasty water. She nodded and laid down on her back to catch her breath.

Dean joined her, laughing. "I guess you can't swim."

McKenly threw her arm over her body to hit him in the chest.

"Dean!" Sam shouted. "McKenly!"

Dean groaned. "What?"

"Hey, you guys alright?"

Dean held up his fingers to show Sam an 'A-OK' sign. "Super."

Sam laughed and pulled himself up from the edge of the bridge.

McKenly stared up at him. "How come you didn't think to grab onto the bridge like he did?" she asked Dean.

"Shut up." Dean only said, wishing he had thought of it. He pushed himself off the ground and helped McKenly up. The two climbed their way back to the bridge. Once there, Dean insisted on checking out his engine. While he did that, McKenly got a rag from the trunk to try and clean the cut on her forehead.

"Is everything alright under there?" McKenly asked.

"Yeah, whatever she did to it, seems alright now." Dean slammed the hood down. "That Constance chick, what a bitch!" Dean shouted.

"Well, she doesn't want us digging around, that's for sure." Sam stated.

Dean sighed, leaning against the Impala.

McKenly joined him, holding the rag.

"So, where's the trail go from here, genius?" Sam asked.

Dean threw his hands up, not knowing where they needed to go.

Sam stood next to them, sniffing the air. "You guys smell like a toilet."

**! #$# !**

"One room, please." Dean said, throwing his credit card down on the front desk of a motel just outside of town.

The old man behind the desk looked to Dean and McKenly strangely for a moment before picking up the car and looking at it. "You guys having a reunion or something?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"That other guy, Bert Aframian. He came in and bought out a room for the whole month." The old man watched as Dean looked to Sam and McKenly. "Will you be needed that room then?"

"No, thank you. We're here for our cousin's wedding." McKenly said. "We'll just pop over and see him."

The man told them his room number and they left the lobby going back out to the car to grab McKenly and Dean's bags and then over to the room.

McKenly knelt down in front of the door, pulling two bobby pins from her backpack to pick the lock. She quickly did so while Dean and Sam kept watch. Upon getting up, she pulled the two brothers into the room to look around. John had books and papers spread throughout the room in a messy fashion, almost like he had left in a hurry.

Dean went to the side table to turn on a lamp. When he did, he noticed a cheeseburger and picked it up to smell it. He made a disgusted face and quickly put it back down.

McKenly laughed silently. "That thing probably smells as bad as you."

"And you." He pointed out. "Makes me think Dad's not been here for a couple days, at least."

McKenly groaned, before she realized the room had a shower. "Well, you guys start figuring this out, I'm going to hit the shower." She said, making her way towards it.

"No, wait!" Dean said, racing her to the bathroom.

McKenly snuck by him, putting her back to the door, facing Dean. She laughed in his face, smiling at him. McKenly opened the door and quickly showered, changing into clean clothes. She could hear the boys talking in the next room, but she didn't try to listen to the conversation. When she turned the shower off, she quickly dressed. As she pulled on her shirt, there was a knock at the door. "One sec." When she opened the door, Dean stood on the other side, holding the small first aid kit from the car.

Dean pointed to the toilet. "Sit."

McKenly obliged and watched as Dean's washed his hands in the sink.

When he was through, he examined the cut on her forehead, just at the hairline. "Does it hurt?"

"Not anymore."

"Bleeding's stopped. You don't need stitches, but it might scar." Dean dabbed some antibiotic on it, just to help speed the recovery.

"One of many." McKenly joked sarcastically, earning a headshake and a smile from Dean. She looked up at him once he was done. "Thanks. I could have done that myself."

"I know." Dean muttered. "Now get out, so I can shower."

McKenly rolled her eyes and left the bathroom. She saw Sam walk towards her to the mirror.

Sam picked up a picture and looked at it.

McKenly looked over his shoulders, seeing that it was a picture of the four of them, probably during the middle of autumn since they were bundled in light jackets and hats. John was sitting on the hood of the Impala, holding Sam on his lap. McKenly sat in the middle of John and Dean, who had his arm around her shoulder. She had to have been twelve or thirteen at the time. "I remember that." McKenly remarked.

Sam looked back to her and nodded. "Yeah, me too."

"It was a good day. Probably one of the more normal one's we had as kids." She joked, laughing.

"You know, I think you're right." Sam paused. "I'm sorry. About what I said on the bridge." He said, not looking from the picture.

"Don't worry about it." McKenly waved it off, turning to sit on the bed, leaning against the headboard.

Sam put the picture in his pocket and faced her sitting just on the edge of it. "It was wrong of me to say. I know it's a touchy subject for you."

"Seriously, Sam. I'm not all for these heart-to-hearts. You know that."

Sam laughed to himself. "Yeah, I do. Are we good?"

"On the parents thing? Yeah. The 'you abandoning us' thing? Not so much."

"I didn't aban - "

"Look, Sam. Until you can give me a better explanation for why my best friend left without saying goodbye, other than 'my dad said so', I really don't want to hear it." McKenly insisted.

"McKenly, that's not fair."

"We'll talk about it later. I really need to get some sleep." McKenly shifted herself and laid down on her side, closing her eyes. She didn't realize how tired she was and quickly fell asleep, listening to the sound of her own breathing. When McKenly woke, it was to the sound of her cellphone ringing. She leaned over the bed, pulling it out of her backpack and answered it. "Hello?" she said, groggily.

"_Ken, wake up. There are cops out here. Take off." _

McKenly sat up quickly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "What about you?" she asked. "I won't leave you."

Sam looked to McKenly wondering what was going on.

"_I'll be fine. They already spotted me. Take Sam. Go find my dad." _

"Dean…" McKenly begged.

"_Just do it, alright?" _

McKenly nodded, even though he couldn't see her. She was about to agree verbally when the line went dead. McKenly groaned, getting up to look out the window.

"What was that?" Sam asked, watching as McKenly went to look out the window.

McKenly saw Dean was talking to the deputies from the other day and cursed. "Five-oh. We gotta go."

"What about Dean?" he asked.

"I'll figure something out." She grabbed her bag and Dean's bag, which had the spare key to the Impala in it. Then she pulled Sam off of the bed. "Now, let's go." She said, pulling him into the bathroom to climb out the window. The two watched and wait as the cops arrested Dean and emptied out John's room for evidence. "Hope there wasn't anything too important in there." she said, once the cops were gone. McKenly and Sam climbed into the car and drove away from the motel. "So what was all of that? On the walls?" she asked.

"It was the case. Dad figured out that Constance was the woman in white. It's a spirit that comes back to haunt men who were unfaithful."

"So, do you think that means that Connie's husband was unfaithful?"

"Only one way to find out."

McKenly nodded.

Sam had been able to find out where Joseph Welch lived and that was where they went. It was an old shack close by the bridge.

McKenly knocked on the door. When he opened the door, McKenly greeted him. "Hi, are you Joseph Welch?"

"Yeah." He answered.

"Do you mind if we take a walk and ask you a few questions?"

"What's this about?" Joseph stepped outside of his house, starting their short walk.

"We were wondering if you had been visited by a man recently."

Sam dug in his pocket and handed the picture from earlier to Mr. Welch. "This man." He clarified, pointing to John in the photo.

"Yeah, he was older, but that's him." Joseph said, holding the photo a few seconds before handing it back to Sam. "He came by three or four days ago. Said he was a reporter.

"That's right. We're all working on a story together."

"Well, I don't know what the hell kind of story you're working on." Joseph grumbled, shaking his head. "The questions he asked me."

"About your late wife? Constance?" McKenly asked, gently.

Joseph nodded. "He asked me where she was buried."

"And where is that again?" Sam asked.

McKenly shot him a look, telling him to back off and be more sensitive about this subject.

Joseph furrowed his brow. "What? I gotta go through this twice?"

"I apologize for my partner, here, but we're just fact checking, Mr. Welch. If you don't mind." McKenly insisted.

"In a plot behind my old place over on Breckenridge."

"Can I ask why you moved?"

"I couldn't live in that house." Joseph said. "My children died there. Just didn't seem right."

"Mr. Welch, did you ever marry again?" McKenly asked.

Joseph shook his head. "No way. Constance, she was the love of my life. Prettiest woman I ever known."

"So the two of you, you had a happy marriage." McKenly assumed.

Joseph hesitated slightly, staring a little into the distance. "Definitely."

McKenly smiled and nodded. "Well, that should do it. Thanks for your time." She grabbed onto the elbow of Sam's jacket to pull him back to the Impala, just in case he decided to push the subject any further. The two parted on their separate sides of the car. It was then that McKenly saw the look on his face like he wasn't done asking the man questions. "Sam, don't do what I think you're going to do." She whispered.

"Mr. Welch?" Sam called.

Joseph turned back around to face the two of them.

"Sam…" McKenly warned.

"Did you ever hear of a woman in white?" Sam asked.

The blonde leaned against the door of the car, crossing her arms of her chest and sighing.

"A what?" the man asked.

"A woman in white. Or sometimes a weeping woman?" Sam continued when Joseph didn't answer. "It's a ghost story. Well, it's more of a phenomenon, really." Sam took a few steps back towards Joseph. "Um, they're spirits. They've been sighted for hundreds of years. In dozens of places in Hawaii and Mexico. Lately in Arizona and Indiana. All these are different women, you understand." Sam stopped, standing in front of Mr. Welch. "But they all share the same story."

"Boy, I don't care much for nonsense." Joseph said, before turning back towards his house.

Sam only followed after him. "You see, when they were alive, their husbands were unfaithful to them. And these women, basically suffering from temporary insanity, murdered their children."

Joseph stopped and turned around with an angry look on his face.

"Then, once they realized what they had done, they took their own lives. So now their spirits are cursed, walking back roads, waterways. If they find an unfaithful man, they kill him, and that man is never seen again."

Joseph's bottom lip trembled. "You think… You think that has something to do with Constance, you smartass?"

"You tell me."

"I mean, maybe…" Joseph trailed off. "Maybe I made some mistakes. But no matter what I did, Constance never would have killed her own children. Now, you get the hell out of here! And you don't come back!" Joseph shook his head, angry and grief-stricken. He stood for a moment, staring angrily, before stalking off.

Sam made his way back to the passenger side of the car.

McKenly and him climbed into the car and she started it, driving off of Mr. Welch's property. "That was risky, Sammy."

"I got what we needed to know, didn't I?"

McKenly nodded. "Yeah, but that guy is still a person. And you just beat the crap outta him emotionally. You coulda been a little nicer to him."

"If I were nicer, I wouldn't have found out that he had been unfaithful to Constance. Now we have proof that she was who is killing those men."

McKenly rolled her eyes. "Salt and burn. I love this part."

"We need to get Dean. We need him."

McKenly nodded. "Grab the burner from the glove compartment. "Call in a fake 911. Shooting or something. He'll get himself outta there."

"You sure?" Sam questioned.

"You're willing to emotionally destroy a person, but you can't prank call the cops?" McKenly joked. "Damn."

While McKenly drove quickly towards the Welchs' old house, Sam made the call and threw the phone out the window. It was about ten minutes before McKenly's cellphone rang.

She smiled to answer it. "Hey, Dean."

"_I am such a bad influence on you. Fake 911 calls are pretty illegal. Even for us."_ Dean joked.

McKenly laughed. "It was Sam who made the call. I just came up with the idea. Figured you could find a way out. By the way, we need a new burner phone."

"_You're smart, Ken. I gotta hand it to ya, but we gotta talk." _

"Alright, well, talk to Sam. I don't want to crash the car."

"_No, Ken, wait!" _Dean tried to say before McKenly handed the phone to Sam.

"Dean." Sam said, listening to Dean's answer. "Tell me about it. So the husband _was_ unfaithful. We _are_ dealing with a woman in white. She's buried behind her old house. So that should have been Dad's next stop." He paused. "I just can't figure out why he hasn't destroyed the corpse yet." Sam listened to Dean. "What? How do you know?"

"What?" McKenly asked, noticing Sam's confused tone.

Sam held up a finger telling her to hold on. "He doesn't go anywhere without that thing."

"Sam."

"What's it say?" Sam asked Dean, listening to his response. "Coordinates. Where to?" Sam waited. "Dean, what the hell is going on?"

"Yeah, I'd like to know, too." McKenly reminded, averting her eyes from the road to Sam for just a second.

"Ken, look out!" Sam shouted.

McKenly's head whipped back towards the windshield seeing Constance standing in the middle of the road. She slammed on the brakes, making her and Sam jerk forward. The car drove right through the woman is it came to a half.

Sam had dropped the phone and both, he and McKenly were breathing heavily.

McKenly looked in the rearview mirror to see if Constance was behind them, but she jumped when she saw her in the back seat of the car.

Constance made eye contact with her in the mirror. "Take me home."


	5. 105

**~105 ~ 3395**

McKenly stared at Constance. She was certainly frightened. They had never managed to find out how she reacted towards woman. Thankfully, Sam had never been unfaithful, or at least that's what she knew of him. McKenly took in slow deep breaths, hoping that it would just leave the two of them alone.

"Take. Me. Home." Constance demanded.

"No." McKenly pressed.

Constance did not like that answer. She took control of the car, locking the doors so they couldn't get out.

Sam tried his lock, but it wouldn't budge. "I can't move it."

McKenly turned her body and tried her lock. "I can't either. We're locked in." She pointed out. "Dean was right. You are a bitch. Let us go."

The gas was pressed by Constance's spirit and the car drove itself. It drove in the direction they had been going, probably taking them to her house.

Sam was struggling, still trying to get the locked unhitched.

"She won't let us out, Sam. You might as well get comfortable."

The car stopped in front of the practically destroyed house. The car shut off as well as the lights. It had gotten even darker now that they were on the outside of town.

"Don't do this." Sam said, glancing back at Constance.

Constance flickered. She shook her head. "I can never go home." She said sadly.

McKenly turned her head to look at her when she realized something about the spirit. "You're scared to go home." She stated clearly,

Constance quickly disappeared from the car.

McKenly let out a sigh. "Sam, that's it. She ca - " McKenly didn't get to finish because she was flung out of the car and into the yard. "Sam!" She shouted before she hit something hard. McKenly didn't know what she hit, but everything went fuzzy and then dark. She was shaken awake by Dean, who was standing over her, holding his gun and hers.

"Ken, wake up." He pressed, leaning down to pick her off the ground.

"She's got Sam."

"Are you okay?"

McKenly nodded, taking the gun from him. "Just get Sam." She regained her balance leaning against the rock that she hit. The two turned their heads quickly at the sound of Sam shouting in pain.

Dean quickly aimed his gun and shot out his front drivers' window.

Constance glared at him and then disappeared, only to reappear a second later. She continued hurting Sam.

Dean kept shooting at Constance, taking steps towards the car, hoping that would make things better.

Finally, she disappeared.

Sam sat up in the seat quickly, turning the key in the engine. He glared forward at the house. "I'm taking you home." Sam threatened, slamming his foot on the gas.

McKenly and Dean stared at him, confused as to what he was doing, until they realized that he was heading straight for the house. "Sam!" They called.

"What the hell is he doing?" Dean asked McKenly, hurrying off after the car.

McKenly thought for a second, before smiling. "He's taking her home." She chased after Dean, rushing into the house just after the car had crashed into it. "Sammy!" McKenly called, hoping he would call back.

"Here!" Sam shouted.

Dean walked to the passenger side of the car. "You okay?"

"I think."

"Can you move?"

"Yeah, help me." Sam strained.

McKenly watched as Constance picked up an old photo frame and stared at it longingly. The slamming of the car door, made Constance come out of her trance with the photo. "Guys, look out!" McKenly called warning them.

Constance became angry, throwing McKenly against a hard wall this time.

She groaned at the contact, falling to the ground, her leg getting scratched by a broken chair leg.

"Ken!" Dean shouted for her.

Constance threw the photo to the ground and made a heavy table slide across the ground, pinning the boys to the car.

"Dean." McKenly yelled, in obvious pain. She whimpered as she reached to touch the cut. McKenly attempted to pull herself up to her feet, only to fall back to the floor.

Constance stepped forward, almost as if she was going to continue to torture the boys. She paused with the lights began to flicker.

McKenly heard the sound of water running. She looked to her right where the stairs were seeing the liquid falling down the stairs as if the tub was overfilling. McKenly's eyes followed up the stairs where she saw two small shadowy figures. "Oh, my god." she whispered, realizing these were Constance's children.

Constance went to the bottom of the steps, staring lovingly at her children.

"Ken, what is it?" Dean demanded.

"I think it's her kids."

The children joined hands and spoke at the same time. "You've come home to us, Mommy." they said. This seemed to scare Constance. The kids appeared down the stairs and grabbed onto their mother, hugging her.

Constance screamed almost as if in pain and the three of them disappeared into a puddle on the floor.

The three let out a huge breath.

Dean had Sam help him push the dresser over and he was at McKenly's side in seconds. He crouched down, pushing the hair out of her face. "You're okay?" He asked, in a slight panic.

McKenly squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head, pointing to her leg.

"Can you walk?"

She shrugged. "I haven't even been able to get up." McKenly admitted. She put an arm around Dean's shoulders, as he pulled her to her feet. McKenly tested out her leg and found that she could walk on it, if she was limping. She groaned. "This is not the job that can handle a handicap."

"You'll be fine." Dean smirked. "I'll stitch it up when we get the car outta here." He led them to the place where Constance had disappeared. "So this is where she drowned her kids." Dean suggested.

Sam nodded. "That's why she could never go home." He explained. "She was too scared to face them."

"You found her weak spot. Nice work, Sammy." Dean congratulated, slapping his brother on the chest where Constance had hurt him.

Sam laughed through the pain. "It was McKenly who had figured it out. She tried to tell me before she was flung from the car."

McKenly shrugged, not wanting the credit. "It was a group effort." She saw, pointing to the car for Dean to take her to it so she could lean on the vehicle. "You know, I wish I could say you did good, too." McKenly smiled. "What were you thinking? Shooting Casper in the face?"

"It saved Sam's ass!" Dean defended.

"Sure."

Dean leaned over the car, looking into it. "I'll tell you another thing, Sam: If you screwed up my car…" Dean faced Sam. "I'll kill you." Dean climbed into the driver's seat. "Help me get this thing out." He ordered of Sam.

Sam obliged, helping him back out the car with little to no more damage to the car. It took them about a half an hour before they could get it back on the road.

McKenly had managed to stay standing on the porch, watching as Dean slowly backed the car out. "Took you long enough!" She shouted to Dean as he exited the car and trudged up the stairs to her.

Dean smiled at her. "You try backing a car out of a house."

"Can't. Bum leg." McKenly gestured to it. "Probably won't be driving for a couple days while it loosens up." She looked to the stairs, wishing that had been something Sam had broken when he crashed into the house.

Dean followed her gaze and a playful smirk came to his face.

McKenly looked at him warily, wondering what he was thinking. "Dean?" she questioned, laughing.

The dirty blond approached her, wrapping an arm around her waist, and threw her over his shoulder, making McKenly laugh.

"You know, I coulda gotten down those steps myself." She pointed out, earning a headshake from Dean. "Watch the leg, would ya?"

"You're too tense, Ken."

McKenly laughed. "Yeah, well, it's not like I have the money or time to get a professional massage." She paused. "And before you even think about it, your hands will not be touching my body in that way."

Dean laughed. "How'd you know that's what I was thinking?"

"I know you too damn well."

Dean placed McKenly in the backseat of the car.

She pushed her way to the other side of the car so Dean could sit next to her after he'd retrieved the first aid kit from the glove compartment. McKenly had her leg over Dean's lap so that he could stitch it up.

"Okay, here's where Dad went." Sam said, from the passenger seat, showing and pointing to the spot he found on a map. "Blackwater Ridge, Colorado."

Dean nodded, wrapping the gauze around her leg. "Sound's charming."

"How far is it?" McKenly asked, wincing as Dean tightened the fabric.

"About six hundred miles."

Dean nodded to Sam. "Hey, if we shag ass, we could make it by morning."

Sam looked back at Dean, smiling, but hesitating. "Dean, I, um…"

As Dean taped the gause down, McKenly looked to Sam and his facial expression. "He's not coming, Dean." She pointed out, looking to him.

Dean looked to her for a second then to Sam.

"The interview is in, like, ten hours. I gotta be there."

Dean nodded. He removed McKenly's leg from his lap and put it in his place after he'd exited the vehicle to go to the driver's seat. "Alright then. Lets get you home." Dean started the car and it roared to life before Dean quickly pulled away from the Welch house.

McKenly knew that Dean was disappointed. She could see that Dean wanted to spend more time with his brother. McKenly reached a hand out to place a comforting grip on Dean's shoulder.

Dean looked back at her in the rearview mirror.

McKenly showed him a one-sided smile, which he returned. She dropped her hand into her lap and put her head against the window, enjoying the cool feeling from it. McKenly stared out the window at all the green that passed quickly. It all turned into a blur as she dozed off to sleep.

**! #$# !**

"Ken." Sam said, gently, shaking McKenly's knee that wasn't on her hurt leg. "Hey we're almost there."

McKenly opened her eyes, examining her surroundings. She had slid down so that she laid completely on the back seat. McKenly sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

Ten minutes later, Dean pulled up to the apartment. He still had the sour look on his face from when Sam said that he wasn't going to Colorado.

McKenly sighed and pulled herself into the passenger seat once Sam was clear of it.

Sam leaned in the window. "Call me if you find him?"

McKenly crossed her arms over her chest as she felt a feeling she had felt the first time Sam had left them. She nodded anyway.

"And maybe I can meet up with you later, huh? Get another gig. The three of us. Maybe four of us. It'll be like when we were little." Sam smiled.

Dean and McKenly didn't. McKenly was bitter about Sam leaving again. She had to bite her lip to keep from saying anything that she would regret.

"Yeah, alright." Dean said, not looking back to Sam.

Sam pat the car door and turned away, walking to the apartment building.

Dean leaned over with a hand on the seat between him and McKenly, so he could see Sam through the window. "Sam?" Dean called, making Sam stop and turn in his place. "You know, we made a hell of a team back there." He said.

McKenly smiled and put one of her hands over his.

Dean looked to it and smiled.

"Yeah, we did." Sam admitted.

McKenly watched as Sam went into his apartment building. She felt something different in the pit of her stomach as Dean drove away, so she kept her hand over his.

Dean let out a breath. "Guess it's just you and me again."

McKenly nodded, staring out the windshield.

"Unless, you wanna go to?" He asked.

McKenly looked to him and smiled, shaking her head. "I like this life."

"Good."

The feeling McKenly felt, grew stronger and she almost felt as if her stomach was on fire. "Dean, could you drive back around. I'm not feeling too well. Something's wrong."

Dean nodded, doing an illegal u-turn. "You alright?" He asked, with worry in his voice, earning a nod from McKenly. "What is it then?"

McKenly shook her head. "I don't know. I just have this awful feeling. I think Sam might be in trouble." This caused Dean to push a little harder on his gas pedal.

"Are you sure about this feeling, Ken?" Dean questioned to clarify. "I don't wanna bust in on my little brother bangin' his girl. Talk about sights you can't un-see."

"Has my gut ever been wrong?"

"Not yet."

"Then we need to get up there. Now." McKenly pushed out of the door before Dean could stop the car and turn it off. She quickly limped up the stairs as fast as she could. It was then that Dean had the chance to catch up to her. "Besides, do you think that I would want to see that? God, I've spent so much time with the kid, he's practically my brother."

"What about me?" Dean asked while McKenly knelt down to pick the lock on the door. "I mean, you spend a lot of time with me, too. Am I a brother to you?"

"Nah, you're just my best friend. It's different with you." McKenly insisted, getting a weird look from Dean. "I don't know, Dean. It's complicated. We've known each other since we were tykes. I know everything there is to know about you."

Before Dean could respond, the two heard a scream from Sam.

McKenly threw the door open and ran towards the bedroom.

Dean was faster than her because of McKenly's hurt leg, but she had managed to stay closely behind him. Dean burst through the bedroom door to see Sam on the bed, staring at the ceiling, screaming at it.

The two followed the younger boy's eyes and saw that Jessica was burning on the ceiling.

McKenly stood at the door in awe, unsure of what she should do. She continued to stare, unaware of the things that were happening around her. Suddenly, Sam's girlfriend turned into McKenly's parents and she was three years old again, crying on her bed. McKenly watched as her parents burned up, their skin bubbling against the fire, just like the accident she had on the case before Constance. She felt her own arm burn, but she couldn't move to make it feel better.

McKenly didn't notice when Dean pushed Sam out the door and down the stairs. She didn't notice Dean going back up the stairs for her, shaking her to get her attention. McKenly hardly even noticed Dean pick her up over his shoulder, running down the flights of stairs to get her out of the building, pushing Sam with his other arm.

The three of them were outside. Dean had placed McKenly into the back seat of the car with the door open. He knelt in front of her, trying to get her to say something.

McKenly's eyes were still glued to the fire that had begun coming out of the bedroom window. She saw her parents, begging for her help, but she couldn't help them.

"McKenly!" Dean shouted, shaking McKenly's shoulder hard to pull her from her trance. He paused to look at her.

McKenly swallowed the lump in her throat, feeling Dean hand on her face, wiping away a tear. Her eyes finally strayed from the fire to meet Dean's. "Dean?" she questioned, her voice cracking. McKenly was crying. She lifted her own hand to her face, wiping away more tears.

Dean grabbed McKenly's shoulders, pulling her into him, hugging her tightly.

"What the hell just happened?"

"It was him, Ken. The thing that killed our parents. It kill Jess." He pulled away with his hands on her shoulders. "I don't know why it's doing this."

McKenly shook her head, pushing Dean out of her way so she could stand up from the car. She walked over to what had become a crime scene since the fire department arrived. McKenly hardly noticed anything but that room.

Dean followed her. As they approached the caution tape, he paid special attention to her to make sure that she didn't go under it and run back up to the room. Dean held her by her elbow so that she couldn't go anywhere.

McKenly had actually contemplated going back to the room. She wasn't sure why or what was telling her to do so, but it was strong. Eventually, she blocked the urge from her mind and leaned into Dean.

Dean's arm went around her shoulders and hers went under his jacket behind his back. He kissed the side of her head and moved to whisper in her ear. "What happened to you up there, Ken?"

McKenly shrugged and turned her body so that she was hugging Dean again.

Dean held her shoulders, continuing to talk to her. "C'mon, don't give me that shit. You could fool Sam with that, but not me. I know you too well."

McKenly sighed. "It was them." She said, quietly into his chest. "On the ceiling, it was them all over again. I didn't see Jess. I saw my mom and my dad." McKenly felt Dean's hold on her tighten. "They kept screaming at me, begging me to help them. I couldn't help them."

Dean turned, leading McKenly back to the Impala. He kept her latched to him, not wanting to let go. "You gotta believe me when I say, there was nothing that you could have done, Ken. You were just a kid." He comforted. "We'll find whatever it is."

"I know."

"In the meantime, you've got your best friend to protect you."

"I know how to use a shotgun. You don't need to protect me."

"I know, but I want to."

McKenly looked up to see that Dean was smiling at her. She nodded and looked at the back of the Impala, seeing Sam load his own shotgun. "How is he?"

Dean shook his head, unsure. "I know he won't talk about it."

"I feel terrible."

Dean nodded. "We gotta get some sleep. You and Sam especially."

"We should stop somewhere." McKenly agreed. "Sam should stay for the funeral. You think we could spring that?"

Dean nodded again. The two of them joined Sam at the trunk of the car.

Sam finished loading his gun and dropped it in the mess. "We got work to do." Sam said, closing the false bottom and shutting the trunk.

"We agree." Dean said. "But, Sam, we all need some sleep. It's been a long day."

Sam looked to Dean with a look that proved to both McKenly and Dean that sleeping was the exact opposite of what Sam wanted to do.

"We can stay here for a few days." McKenly encouraged. "Maybe you can stop by for the funeral." McKenly's eyes met Sam's as she practically begged him with the look.

Sam nodded. "Alright.

All three climbed into the car, Sam taking the backseat behind Dean.

Dean drove with one hand on the steering wheel and the other arm around McKenly's shoulders. She was tucked into him with her head laying on his shoulder.

As soon as they got a cheap room, McKenly changed quickly and threw herself onto a bed. She looked around the room, noticing Sam on the other bed with his dad's journal.

Dean checked the room, making sure everything was locked up tight. When he was done, he looked to McKenly, questioningly.

McKenly figured he was asking if she wanted him to sleep with her. She nodded and moved the sheets from the other side of the bed out of the way for him. Both ignored Sam's strange look as they turned their backs to him.

Dean laid down with his arms around McKenly.

McKenly felt his breath on the back of her neck and focused on it until she drifted quickly to sleep.

**! #$# !**

_**Thanks for reading! I'm sad to say I have yet to have any reviewers. Sure there are favs and follows, but no reviewers yet. I'm hoping that will change. I love my silent readers even if they're silent.**_


	6. 106

**~106 ~ 3213**

No one got any sleep that night, especially Sam. Every time that McKenly woke up, she saw him, sitting on his bed with his dad's journal in his lap, trying to make sense of it. She would tell him to go to sleep, he would grumble in response, and Dean would pull her back under the covers.

It had been a week since the fire at Sam's apartment and California was far behind in the Impala's rear view mirror. McKenly sat in the front seat, playing navigator with the map in her lap.

Sam jerked awake in the back seat, taking a sharp inhale of breath. He blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes.

"You okay?" Dean asked, looking back at him in the rearview mirror.

Sam met his eyes through the glass and looked back out the window. "Yeah, I'm fine." he responded.

Dean nodded, unconvinced.

"Another nightmare?" McKenly asked, face buried in the map.

Sam didn't answer her question, but he didn't need to. The others already knew what the answer would be.

"You wanna drive for a while?" Dean asked.

McKenly furrowed her brow, and looked from the map to Dean.

Sam laughed. "In your whole life you have never once asked me that."

Dean shrugged. "Just thought that you might want to. Never mind then."

"Look, guys, you're worried about me. I get it, and thank you. Really, but I'm perfectly okay." Sam insisted.

McKenly looked back at him, opening her mouth to say something, but Sam shook his head to stop her from saying anything.

"McKenly, I'm fine." He eyed her, knowing that she wouldn't give up, even if she was mad at him still. Sam took the map from the blonde's lap. "Alright. Where are we?" he asked.

"Just outside of Grand Junction."

Sam folded the map in his lap, looking over the spot that was marked on it. "You know what? Maybe we shouldn't have left Stanford so soon."

McKenly sighed. "Sam, we dug around there for a week. Ran the place dry and came up with nothing. We can't stick around so you can pick through all your burnt up possessions looking for more nothing."

Dean turned his head to look at her with an eyebrow raised. "Helpful. Thanks." he said, making McKenly roll her eyes. "Look, if we wanna find the thing that killed Jessica - "

"We gotta find Dad first, I know." Sam interrupted.

"John disappearing and then this son of bitch coming back after twenty years doesn't just happen, you know?" McKenly said, trailing off and looking out the window.

Dean looked at McKenly for a second, knowing very well that she was still freaked out at the demon coming back. "Dad will have the answers. He'll know what to do. And we'll find him."

Sam looked on the map. "Guys, it's weird. These coordinates that he left us. Blackwater Ridge."

McKenly looked to him with her eyebrows furrowed. "What's so weird?"

"There's nothing there. It's just woods." Sam handed the map back to McKenly so she could look. "Why would Dad send us to the middle of nowhere?"

McKenly shrugged. "Ever think that the gig is in the middle of nowhere?" she asked Sam. "Could be a werewolf killing campers. Whatever it is, we go where he tells us."

**! #$# !**

Three hours later, Dean pulled up to the ranger station of Lost Creek National Forest. In the middle of the room there was a three-dimensional model of the entire forest. McKenly approached it, leaning over it to get a good look. "Whoa." She said in awe.

Dean came up behind her to look. "No kidding."

Sam leaned over and gestured to an area on the map. "It looks like Blackwater Ridge is confined to this area here." He said. "It's cut off by these canyons, rough terrain, dense forest, abandoned silver and gold mines all over the place. "

Dean groaned, not fascinated with Sam's talk of the forest and he began to explore more of the station. He approached a framed photo of a man with a bear. "Dude, check out the size of this friggin' bear."

Sam joined Dean, shaking his head. "There are also a dozen or more grizzlies in that area." Sam responded. "It's no nature hike, that's for sure."

McKenly turned away from the table at the sound of footsteps approaching them. "Hi there," she said with a smile.

"You guys aren't planning on goin' out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance?"

"No, sir." McKenly said. "We're environmental study majors from UC Boulder. We're working on a paper for our class."

Dean smiled, proud of McKenly's quick cover idea. "Recycle, man."

"Bull." The ranger said boldly.

McKenly furrowed her brow, laughing. "Excuse me?"

"You're friends of that Haley girl, aren't ya?"

Dean thought about how to respond before looking to McKenly who shrugged. "Yes." He said, walking towards McKenly and the ranger. "Yes, we are, Ranger…" he looked to the name badge, "Wilkinson."

"I'll tell you exactly what I told her." Wilkinson said. "Her brother filled out a backcountry permit saying that he would be out there until the twenty-fourth. You can't file a missing person's report if his whereabouts are known."

Dean nodded his head, agreeing.

"You tell that girl to quit worrying. I'm sure that her brother's just fine."

"We will." McKenly smiled, turning towards the door.

"Well, that Haley girl's quite a pistol, huh?" Dean joked. "Actually, what would help us convince her is if I could show her a copy of that permit. You know, so we could show her when her brother's return date is."

The ranger eyed Dean and then looked to McKenly.

McKenly sighed. "It would set her mind at ease." She said, going along with his plan.

The ranger nodded at McKenly. "I'll be right back."

McKenly sighed and left the station, not wanting to wait around in the silence. She went out to lean on the Impala, waiting for the boys. McKenly raked her hand through her hair, pushing it out of her face. She sighed, wondering what kind of idea Dean had about finding this girl. He always seemed to want to flirt with any girl on any case.

A moment later, Sam followed out of the station after McKenly, leaving Dean to wait for the copy of the permit. He joined her, leaning against the car next to her.

McKenly let out a breath. "How you doin', Sam?" she asked.

Sam smiled and shook his head. "I told you. I'm fine."

"You're not." McKenly pointed out. "But I guess I'll take it."

"You're still mad at me."

"I haven't started trusting you again, if that's what you mean."

"You think you ever will?" Sam asked.

"Maybe. But right now, I'm not okay."

Sam nodded. "I didn't come out here to talk about you and me anyway."

McKenly furrowed her brow, looking to Sam. "If you didn't, what exactly did you come out here to talk about?"

"What's going on with you and Dean?"

"What are you talking about?"

Sam smiled at her fake innocence. "C'mon, Ken. You know what I'm talking about. I mean, the whispering, the hand-holding, the sleeping together without _sleeping together_. I've never seen do that. Or want to, for that matter."

McKenly blushed and bit her lip. She wasn't going to talk about what her relationship was with Dean, especially when she didn't know what her relationship with him was. "We've been comforting each other, Sam. Nothing more than that."

Sam looked to McKenly, but she kept her gaze towards the line of trees.

"It's been really hard out here. Half the time I'm wishing that I could have a stable home and the other half I love what I do and couldn't think of anything else to do. I mean, your dad is missing and my parents are gone. Between that and the nightmares, it's hell. We need to cheer each other up."

"You don't get that annoyed at a guy talking about girls unless you want more than what you have." Sam said.

She looked to him. "I'm not upset about him talking about this Haley chick."

Dean exited the station. "Got it." He said. "Let's go find her." The three of them filed into the car, McKenly choosing to sit in the back this time.

"Are you, uh, looking for a hook-up or something?" Sam asked Dean, sending a pointed look towards McKenly.

"What do you mean?" Dean questioned.

"The coordinates point to Blackwater Ridge, so what are we waiting for? Let's go find Dad." Sam insisted. "This girl doesn't know anything we wouldn't. We really don't need to talk to her. Unless…" He trailed off, letting Dean fill in the blanks.

"No." Dean said quickly, avoiding McKenly's eyes in the rearview mirror. "I don't know. Maybe we should know what we're walking into before we walk into it. Since when are you all 'shoot first, ask questions later,' anyway?"

Sam shrugged. "Since now."

**! #$# !**

Dean knocked on the door to the Collins' house. A few moments later, a girl opened the door. Dean smiled. "You must be Haley Collins." Dean inferred. "I'm Dean, and this is Sam and McKenly. We're uh…" Dean couldn't think of what his cover was.

McKenly rolled her eyes and stepped forward, putting herself in front of Sam and Dean. "We're rangers with the Park Service. Ranger Wilkinson sent us over. We're here to ask you a few questions about your brother, Tommy."

Haley hesitated. "Let me see some ID." she ordered.

McKenly nodded and reached into her jacket pocket, pulling out a green colored ID with too small print and a fake name. She held it up against the screen.

Haley looked at it and then back to the boys that stood behind McKenly. "Come on in." she said.

"Thanks." Dean smiled.

McKenly bit her tongue, not saying anything about Dean's flirting.

Once everyone was inside, Haley looked out the door to look outside. "Is that your car?" she asked, noticing the Impala.

Dean turned to face her. "Yeah."

"Nice car." She said. leading Dean, Sam, and McKenly into the dining room where another boy sat with a laptop.

"So, if Tommy's not due back for a while, how do you know that there's something wrong?" McKenly asked, wanting to get straight to business.

Haley got a bowl from her kitchen counter a room over and placed in in front of the boy at the table. "He checks in everyday by cell." She said simply, "He emails, sends photos, stupid little videos. Now we haven't heard anything in over three days."

"Maybe he can't get any cell reception."

Haley smiled at McKenly's digging. "He's got a satellite phone, too."

"Maybe he's having too much fun. Forgot to check in." Dean suggested.

The boy turned around to eye Dean. "He wouldn't do that." He said, pointedly.

Dean eyed the him until the boy looked away.

"Our parents are gone." Haley said. "It's only me, Tommy and Ben now. We all keep pretty close tabs on each other." She put her hands on Ben's shoulders.

"Can I see the pictures he sent you?" Sam asked.

Haley nodded, leading Sam to the desktop computer.

"We'll find your brother. We'll be heading out to Blackwater Ridge first thing in the morning." Dean insisted.

"Maybe we'll see you there." Haley said, making the hunters' eyes land on her. "I can't just sit around here anymore. So I hired a guy. I'm heading out in the morning and I'm gonna find Tommy myself."

McKenly shook her head. "Haley, I don't think - "

Dean interrupted McKenly. "I think I know how you feel."

**! #$# !**

Later that night, the hunters went to a bar to score some money playing pool and have a couple of beers. The three sat down at a table, Sam pulled out his computer and his father's journal.

McKenly groaned at the sight, really only wanting to relax. She grabbed her beer and took a very long swig from it.

"So, Blackwater Ridge doesn't get a lot of traffic. Local campers, mostly. But still, this past April, two hikers went missing out there. They were never found."

McKenly shook her head and slammed her glass bottle on the table. "Sam, please. Do we really have to do this? Now?" she begged. "I need, like, eight of these." she gestured to her beer.

Sam smiled and shook his head, continuing anyway. "Then, in 1982, eight different people vanished all within a year. The police were blaming it on a grizzly attack."

McKenly sighed as she finished her drink. "Ah, but it never is."

Sam pulled out some newspaper clippings from his bag. "Of course not. Because it happened before in 1959 and 1938." Sam opened his laptop. "Every twenty-three years. Like clockwork."

"This is looking more like our kinda thing every second." Dean told Sam.

"Just wait. After looking at the videos back at Haley's place, I noticed something. So I asked her to send them to me. Check this out." Sam showed Dean the video, clicking through a few frames.

Dean leaned in to watch, but McKenly nursed her second beer. "Do it again." Dean ordered, watching it again. "McKenly, look at this." Dean pulled the laptop over to McKenly and clicked through the frames.

"What is it?" she asked.

Sam shrugged. "I don't know. But that's three frames which is just a fraction of a second. Whatever it is, it is fast."

"Well, it's our kinda thing." McKenly said, downing the second glass.

"One more thing." Sam started. "In '59, one of the campers survived. He was just a kid. Barely crawled out alive."

Dean picked up the paper. "Is there a name?"

Sam nodded.

"Alright. We'll check him out. Work on finding an address." Dean looked to McKenly. "Ken, don't you think that you should slow down."

McKenly shook her head. "Nah. I'm good."

**! #$# !**

The car ride over to the man's house was more silent than its ever been for the three of them. The man let the three of them in after they had introduced themselves as rangers wanting to talk to him about the night that he had been attacked.

"Look, rangers, I don't know why you're asking me about this." Shaw said, with a cigarette in his mouth. "I was a kid. That was forty-six years ago. My parents got mauled by a - "

"Grizzly?" Sam interrupted. "That's what attacked them?"

Shaw took a drag out of his cigarette and nodded.

"And the other people that went missing that year, too? Were they bear attacks?" Sam grilled as if the man would have had any clue. "What about all the people that went missing this year? Same thing?"

McKenly stepped in between Sam and Shaw. "Mr. Shaw," she started. "if we knew what we were dealing with, we might be able to stop it."

Shaw stared at the blonde for a moment before shaking his head. "I seriously doubt it. It wouldn't make a difference." He put out his cigarette. "You wouldn't believe me. No one ever did."

"Trust me, sir. There isn't much that I _don't_ believe." McKenly said, sincerely, earning Shaw's interest. "What did you see?"

Shaw sighed, thinking back. "N-nothing. I mean, it moved too fast." He stumbled for his words. "I couldn't see it. I heard it though. It roared, not like anything I ever heard. Man or animal."

"It came at night?" Sam asked, earning a nod from the old man. "Got inside your tent?"

Shaw shook his head. "Our cabin. I was asleep in front of the fireplace when it came in. There wasn't a window smashed or a door broken in. The thing unlocked the friggin' door." Shaw scoffed. "Do you know of a bear that could do something like that? Thing didn't even wake me. Not until I heard my parents scream."

"Did it kill them?" McKenly asked, earning a head shake from Shaw.

"It dragged them. Into the night." Shaw shook his head again, not believing even what he was saying. "Why did it leave me?" He questioned. "I've been asking myself ever since." Shaw's hand went to his collar. "Did leave me this, though." He pulled his shirt down a bit, revealing three claw marks clear across his chest. "There is something evil back in those woods. It was some sort of demon."

McKenly nodded. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Shaw. We'll see ourselves out."

The old man grabbed McKenly's arm to stop her from going anywhere.

Sam and Dean stepped forward to protect McKenly, but she stopped them, putting her hand up to make them pause.

"You really think you can catch the damn thing?" Shaw asked.

McKenly nodded. "Catch it and kill it." She promised, before leading the boys back to the car. McKenly sat in silence in the backseat behind them, listening as they bounced ideas off of each other.

"Spirits and demons don't need to unlock doors." Dean stated. "If they want inside, they just go through walls."

"Okay…" Sam thought. "So, it's probably something else. Something corporeal."

"Corporeal? Excuse me, professor." Dean joked.

"Shut up." Sam rolled his eyes. "So what do you think?"

Dean let out a breath, thinking. "The claws. The speed that it moves. The thing could be a skinwalker, maybe a black dog. We're talking about a creature, and it's corporeal." Dean stressed, still picking on Sam. "Which means we kill it."

Sam nodded. "What about you, Ken?" Sam asked, turning in his seat to face her.

McKenly didn't look away from the window. "I don't know. I just want to kill the damn thing."

Neither of them spoke after that. They weren't sure what could be said. So, in order to pass the time, Dean drove towards the next motel to let them sleep through the next few hours. Once parked, the three moved around to the trunk. Dean grabbed an empty duffel bag for the three of them to pack for tomorrow's hike through the forest.

Sam stood behind McKenly and Dean as they packed. "I've been thinking." He started. "I don't think we can let that Haley girl go out there."

"Finally, college boy says something smart." McKenly snided.

"Oh, yeah?" Dean questioned, having not heard McKenly's remark. "What exactly are we gonna tell her? That she can't go into the woods because of a big scary monster?"

McKenly sighed, grabbing her bag of clothes, and turned to lean on the car to watch Sam and Dean fight.

"Yeah." Sam said boldly.

McKenly laughed, earning a glare from the taller brother. "No offense, Sam, but I don't think she'll believe us, let alone listen."

Dean looked from McKenly to Sam. "Her brother is missing. You heard her." He reminded. "She won't sit this one out. Now, if we go with her, we can protect her, and keep our eyes peeled for our fuzzy predator friend." Dean picked up the duffel bag from the trunk and stepped back.

"Is finding Dad not enough?" Sam asked, slamming the hidden compartment cover down and then the trunk. "Now we gotta babysit, too?" Sam got a glare from Dean. "What?" he questioned.

Dean shook his head at his brother. "Nothing"

**! #$# !**

_**Sorry that it took a bit for me to get this out. I've had it written, just been lazy about posting it. **_

_**Thanks to **__**SPNFangirl1965**__** for being my first reviewer. McKenly was just something I made up, I guess. I love the nickname Ken, mostly because I love masculine nicknames for girls, and I worked backwards from there. It kind of came to me. I'm glad that you like it. **_


	7. 107

**~107 ~ 3199**

The three woke early the next morning and piled into the Impala with gigantic cups of coffee. McKenly wasn't saying much, neither did the boys. Dean drove the car as far into the forest as he could before he managed to find the car he assumed Haley drove in with her search party.

McKenly downed the rest of her coffee before pushing herself out of the backseat of the car, grabbing the duffel bag the boys had packed.

"You guys got room for three more?" Dean asked.

"Wait, you want to come with us?" Haley questioned.

"Who are these guys?"

Haley looked to the man who asked. "Apparently, this is all the park service could muster up for the search and rescue. Roy, this is Dean, Sam, and McKenly." She turned to the hunters. "Roy's the guy that I hired to help us find Tommy."

"You're rangers?" Roy asked.

Dean nodded. "That's right."

"And you're hiking out in biker boots and jeans?" Haley questioned.

"Well, sweetheart," Dean responded, approaching her, "I don't do shorts."

"He doesn't!" McKenly called ahead of her. "It's his knees. They're kinda creepy lookin'."

Dean held his hand up to her as if to show Haley that McKenly spoke the truth. Dean walked passed her to join McKenly and Sam.

"What, you think this is funny?" Roy asked. "It's dangerous backcountry out there. Her brother might be hurt."

Dean looked to Sam and McKenly. "Believe me, I know how dangerous it can be. We just want to help them find their brother. That's all."

Roy sighed, relenting.

"Don't worry, Roy." McKenly spoke. "We can hold our own."

About a half hour into walking, the quiet seemed to start to bug Dean. He was chatting with Roy while McKenly hiked alongside Ben, Sam and Haley following close behind them.

"Roy, you said you did a little hunting." Dean said.

Roy scoffed. "Yeah, more than a little."

"Uh-huh. What kind of furry critters do you hunt?"

"Mostly buck. Sometimes bear."

Dean smirked. "Tell me, uh, Bambi or Yogi ever hunt you back?"

Roy grabbed the back of Dean's jacket forcefully, making McKenly put her hand on the gun she had in the waistband of her jeans.

"What you doing, Roy?" Dean asked him.

Roy didn't respond. Instead, he let go of Dean's jacket and picked up a stick from the ground, jabbing the end into the space in front of Dean causing a trap to go off. "You should watch where you're stepping… Ranger."

Dean looked back at McKenly and Sam and chuckled. "It's a bear trap." He said before continuing after Roy. The group carried on with their trek, McKenly staying close to Dean and Haley, listening in on their conversation.

"You didn't pack any provisions." Haley pointed out. "You guys are carrying a duffel bag. You're not rangers. So, who the hell are you?" Haley grabbed Dean's arm, stopping them.

McKenly looked at Dean, shrugging her shoulders.

Dean sighed quickly. "Sam and I are brothers, and we're looking for our father."

Haley looked to McKenly and then back to Dean. "What about her? She your girlfriend or something?"

"What? No, she's my best friend. My dad raised her. Now, he might be here, but we don't really know. I just figured that you and me, we're in the same boat."

Haley hesitated for a moment, thinking it over. "Why didn't you just tell me that from the start?"

Dean raised his brow. "I'm telling you now." He admitted. "Besides, it's probably the most honest I've ever been with a woman. Ever." Dean paused. "So, we okay?"

"Yeah, okay."

"And what do you mean, I didn't pack provisions?" Dean asked. He pulled a bag of peanut M&amp;Ms out of his pocket. He took some out and then offered the bag to McKenly.

McKenly smiled and took a handful, walking on towards Sam.

**! #$# !**

The group had been walking for quite a while. The sun was shining much brighter through the trees than it was when they had started. McKenly looked up, squinting at the light, wondering where they were. She glanced around at the group. Dean was walking with Haley again, Sam easily kept up with Roy, and McKenly was walking with Ben. The two talked whenever he would talk back. McKenly found Ben to be a quiet kid, but when he did say something, she found he was a good kid.

Roy addressed the group, taking in his surroundings. "This is it." He said boldly. "Blackwater Ridge."

McKenly grabbed his comment and stepped in front of him to look around.

Sam followed closely behind her. "What coordinates are we at?" Sam asked the leader.

Roy pulled out his GPS from his pack and checked it. "Thirty-five minus one-eleven."

Dean walked over, standing next to McKenly and Sam. He spoke softly. "Do you hear that?" He asked the two.

"Hear what?" McKenly listened. "There's nothing." She quickly realized.

"Not even crickets." Sam added.

Roy ignored the hunters gathering together on their own, deciding he should wander off from the group. "I'm gonna go take a look around.

McKenly, however, noticed at tried to stop him. "You shouldn't go out there by yourself." She warned.

Roy cocked his head to the side with a fake smirk. "That's awfully kind of you, sweetheart, but you don't need to worry about me." He grabbed onto his shotgun with both hands and walked between the three of them to continue on his trek.

McKenly rolled her eyes, facing Dean. "I don't think that'll help him." She admitted. "It might just make this thing angrier that it already is."

Dean nodded, agreeing with McKenly. As Haley and her brother caught up with the hunters, Dean spoke. "Alrighty, everybody stays together." He insisted, taking the lead of the five of them that were left.

McKenly wasn't really scared. She was more worried for Roy's well-being. Especially since the three of them hadn't figured out what exactly they were hunting yet. There was another half hour of walking before McKenly needed to sit down and stretch out the muscles in her legs. She took a seat on a rock and started to roll her ankles. The four that were left with her, continued to look around for clues of Tommy's whereabouts while McKenly took her small break.

"Haley!" Roy shouted from a short distance. "Over here!"

McKenly hadn't realized they had kept so close to him. She pushed herself off of the rock quickly and followed quickly after the others, who were well ahead of her. When she caught up with the others, she found herself in a clearing that held a disastrous campsite.

"Oh, my God." Haley gasped as she took in the sight before her. The tents were torn open and camping gear was scattered all over the clearing. The worst was when McKenly noticed the blood. She glanced back at Dean, who didn't have anything to say.

"Looks like a grizzly." Roy assumed, standing amongst the mess.

They stepped forward, still trying to make sense of the mess.

"Tommy?" Haley called, reaching to take off her backpack. "Tommy!" She shouted even louder.

Sam quickly chased after her trying to keep her quiet.

"Tommy!" She screamed.

Sam put a hand on her arm and shushed her a last time.

McKenly wasn't happy with Sam's lack of progress so she approached him and Haley. "Haley," she said forcefully. "We have to keep quiet."

"What?" Haley asked. "Why?"

"There might still be something out there. We don't want to lead it right back to us, do we?"

Haley shook her head.

"Good. Now, let's get back to the others."

"Ken. Sam." Dean called.

McKenly turned her head toward the sound of his voice and quickly joined his side, Sam following close behind her. "What?" She saw him and noticed he had dropped their duffel bag back at the camp.

Dean crouched down, waving for she and Sam to do the same. "The bodies were dragged from the campsite."

"_Their _bodies, Dean." McKenly argued. "We don't know they're dead yet."

Dean glared and rolled his eyes before speaking again. "Okay, _their_ bodies." He corrected. he pointed to the ground. "Anyway, right here, the tracks just vanish."

McKenly stood to her feet, just as the brothers had. "So what is it?" she asked. "What does something like this?"

"I'll tell you what." Dean started, glancing to Sam. "It's no skinwalker or black dog." He turned away from the others and walked back to the camp.

McKenly followed after him and saw Haley bending down to reach for a cellphone in the dirt.

Haley's lip quivered.

Dean did something McKenly had never really seen before, especially with someone they had met on a case. He crouched down next to Haley in a comforting way. "Hey, he could still be alive."

Haley looked to him with hopeful but unbelieving eyes.

"Help!" A loud voice screamed. "Please! Somebody help me!"

Roy quickly ran to go aid whoever had screamed. The group followed after him.

"Help! Help!" the voice just shouting out.

The entire camping group gathered in a small clearing, looking in different directions of the circle.

McKenly stood in one place, turning slowly to look out in the forest in each direction.

Haley approached McKenly. "It seemed like it was coming from around here, didn't it?" she asked the blonde.

McKenly nodded once and looked around again. She turned her body quickly, rustling the leaves at her feet when she thought that she saw something.

"Ken?" Dean questioned, noticing his friend's sudden alertness. "What's wrong?" he asked.

McKenly hesitated before answering. "We need to get out of here." She said, her voice shaking slightly.

Dean strode over and grabbed her elbow, gently pulling her back in that direction.

"Everybody back to camp." Sam ordered.

Dean pulled McKenly along when she didn't immediately follow, still distracted by the unknown through the trees.

Eventually, McKenly followed. Upon returning to the camp, she quickly noticed that everybody's bags and supplies were missing.

"Our packs!" Haley shouted, exasperated.

"So much for my GPS and satellite phone." Roy said.

"What the hell is going on?" Haley asked the hunters.

McKenly shook her head, not being able to answer. She was still trying to figure out everything that she saw, going through the list of the supernatural that she had in her head.

"It's smart." Sam told her. "It wasn't to cut us off so we can't call for help."

"You mean some_one_." Roy corrected. "Some nut job is out there and he just stole all our gear."

Sam approached Dean and McKenly from behind. "I need to talk to you two." He said aloud but quietly. "In private." Sam leaded them a little ways away from the edge of the campsite. "Let me see Dad's journal." Sam demanded.

Dean reached to his inside jacket pocket to take it out and hand the book to his brother.

Sam opened it, quickly searching for a particular page. "Alright. Check this out." Sam handed the book back to Dean, pointing to a drawing.

"Oh, come on." Dean said, not believing Sam's assumption. "Wendigos are in the Minnesota woods or - or northern Michigan. I've never seen or heard of one this far west." Dean rolled his eyes, rejecting the idea. He closed the journal and stuffed it in his jacket pocket again.

"Dean, it makes sense." McKenly insisted. "Think about it. The claws, the speed, the way it can mimic a human voice. I saw it. It was fast, but I caught a quick glimpse of it and it looked like a large human."

Dean sighed. "Great." He took his gun from his waistband. "Well, that means that this is useless."

McKenly nodded, wishing that wasn't the case. She looked back to the others in the group. They had no idea.

"We've got to let them know." Sam said.

The blonde disagreed, shaking her head. "No, we gotta get them to safety." McKenly corrected, trudging back to the camp before the boys. She addressed the camp. "We've got to talk."

"Actually, we have to leave." Sam said. "Things have gotten… More complicated."

"What?" Haley questioned. She looked from Sam to McKenly, who nodded.

"Kid, don't worry." Roy wished. "Whatever's out there, I think that I can handle it."

"It's not me that I'm worried about." Sam argued. "If you shoot this thing, you're just gonna make it mad. We need to leave. Now."

Roy shook his head. "One," the man showed one finger. "You're talking nonsense." Roy added another finger. "Two, you're in no position to give anybody orders."

Dean stepped forward, wanting to calm the conversation. "Relax."

"We never should've let you come out here in the first place, alright?" Sam raised his voice. "I'm trying to protect you."

Roy stepped forward into Sam's face. "You protect me?" He scoffed. "Son, I was hunting these woods when your mommy was still kissing you good night."

"Yeah?" Sam questioned, sarcastically. "It's a damn near perfect hunter. It's smarter than you, and it's gonna hunt you down and eat you alive unless we get your stupid, sorry ass out of here!"

"Sam!" McKenly shouted. "Stop it!"

Roy just laughed. "You know you're crazy, right?"

"Yeah?" Sam shouted, somehow getting further into Roy's face. Things were getting worse. It'd be dangerous for a fight to break out now. "You ever hunt a wen - "

Dean quickly rushed, pushing Sam away from Roy. "Chill out!" He ordered to the both of them.

Sam walked away, trying to calm himself down.

McKenly stood in the circle, trying to figure out their next step.

"Everybody just stop." Haley forced. "Look, Tommy might still be alive. And I'm not leaving here without him."

There was a good pause before McKenly spoke. "If we're gonna stay, we've got to stay it smart."

Dean relented. "It's getting late. This thing is a good hunter in the day but an unbelievable hunter at night." He pulled out his father's journal, flipping through the pages. "We won't beat it, not in the dark. We need to settle in and protect ourselves."

Haley shook her head, more out of confusion than objection. "How?"

Dean handed McKenly the journal after losing patience trying to find the page.

McKenly laughed. "This is the gun part." She explained, quickly finding the page. "Ben, you and Roy start building a fire." She instructed, getting nods. McKenly looked to Haley. "You can help us."

"With what?"

"We need to draw these…" She flashed Haley the journal, showing her some symbols John had drawn, "around the campsite."

"And what exactly are these?" Haley questioned, studying the strange markings.

"Anasazi symbols. They're used for protection. The wendigo can't cross over them." McKenly explained, holding the book open so Dean can copy the design into the dirt with a stick.

When he finished, he stood from the ground and handed the stick to McKenly. "Where's Sam?" he asked.

McKenly gestured her head to the edge of the clearing.

"I'm gonna go talk to him." he said, getting a nod from McKenly.

"Go on. We got this." She said, looking to Haley, who nodded. "How hard could a few drawings be?" McKenly smiled.

"Be careful." He wished, taking off in Sam's direction.

McKenly knelt down and started drawing a symbol herself. On the next one, she handed the stick to Haley. "You try this one. Make sure you copy the symbol exactly. Otherwise its useless."

"No pressure, right?" Haley joked. She took her time, drawing perfectly. They finished the circle quickly and joined Ben in the middle of the circle to sit around the fire.

The boy poked at the small fire, looking in McKenly's direction. "Do you guys really think that we should get out of here?" he asked. "Is it really that dangerous?"

McKenly shrugged her shoulders, but nodded. "I think it's not safe for either of you. We've been doing this kind of thing our whole lives. You guys don't know enough about what is out there to protect yourselves." She admitted. McKenly's head spun quickly towards the sound of a twig snapping. She looked out through the trees, but didn't see anything. "Sam. Dean." McKenly called quietly, but loud enough for them to hear and join her by her side. "I heard something."

"Help me!" A voice shouted, the hunters assuming it was the wendigo. "Please!"

Everyone stood from their spots.

Dean took out his gun and cocked it, still knowing it wouldn't work. He needed something to be able to protect Ben, Haley, and McKenly.

"Help!" It screamed again.

"He's trying to draw us out." Dean insisted. "Just stay cool. Stay put."

"Inside the magic circle?" Roy asked, mocking the hunters.

"Help!" The wendigo shouted again. "Help me!" The creature growled.

Roy aimed his gun through the trees, towards the sound. "Okay, that's no grizzly." He said.

"No, shit." McKenly mumbled. She turned to look at Haley and Ben. "you guys are gonna be okay. We won't let anything happen to you." As she said it, McKenly felt a large gust of wind rush past her. She had assumed it was the wendigo.

Haley screamed.

"It's here!" McKenly warned.

Roy noticed the rustling, quickly turned and shot at it. "I hit it!" he boasted. Roy ran towards the direction his bullet shot.

"Roy, stop!"

"Roy, no!" Dean tried, hoping he'd listen, which he didn't. "Get back here!" When Roy didn't, he cursed. "Dammit." He took a few steps to follow Roy into the woods and paused, looking to McKenly.

"Go!" McKenly insisted. "We'll be fine here."

"Don't move." Dean said strictly, running off after Sam and Roy.

McKenly, Haley and Ben stood in a circle, each facing the trees. McKenly had her hand on her gun. Haley picked up a stick from the fire and held it with the fire on the opposite end. McKenly glanced at the other girl's weapon, thinking Haley's was probably a better choice given their situation.

"Don't freak out, okay? We're safe in the circle." McKenly reassured. "They'll be back soon." She said, mostly for herself. As the minutes passed, McKenly's breathing got heavier and she began to worry. Even though she was sure the brothers would be okay, the anxiety wouldn't go away.

McKenly heard rustling coming from the opposite direction that Sam and Dean left. She quickly rotated the circle so that she faced the moving bushes. With her gun cocked and aimed at the tree line, she hoped that it wasn't the monster. McKenly held her finger over the trigger, ready to squeeze it. She almost did, but then Dean came from the brush. McKenly sighed and turned the safety back on to her gun. "Oh, thank God." She jogged over to him, threw her arms around his neck and hugged him.

Dean hesitated a moment before hugging her back.

McKenly released a relaxed breath and pulled away from Dean slowly, a little embarrassed. "I, uh… I'm glad you're okay."

Dean nodded in response. "You, too."

"Did you guys find Roy?" McKenly asked, trying to move past the awkward moment.

"Honestly, I think the wendigo got to him.

McKenly groaned. "Awesome."

**! #$# !**

_**Author's Note: Sorry, guys! I know that it's been a long while since I've posted, but it's been crazy over my way. No reviews this time, which makes me a little sad (especially since it's my birthday), but I guess I will survive. For my birthday present to myself, for you guys, I'm updating all of my active stories today. You should all feel lucky. :)**_

_**Follow, favorite, and review this time around!**_


	8. 108

**~108 ~ 4117**

As is got later in the night, the three hunters decided that the group should get some rest while one of them stayed up on watch. McKenly had taken the first shift, so the boys could get a couple hours of sleep.

Dean being Dean, refused to sleep, so he decided he'd take the responsibility of watching over the others. He sat in the dirt, leaning against a tree towards the outside of the circle.

McKenly had quickly fallen asleep next to him with her head in his lap. Her neck was being lightly massaged by Dean's hand until she drifted into a deep slumber.

McKenly awoke the next morning as the sun started to rise in the sky. She turned over onto her back to look up at Dean, her head still resting on his legs.

Dean's arm was draped across her shoulders as if to hold her against him so she couldn't get up.

McKenly rolled her eyes at the sight of Dean sleeping uncomfortably against the tree. She moved slowly, picking up his hand gently, to not wake him.

However, as soon as Dean felt the movement, his eyes shot open and his hold tightened on the blonde.

"Dean!" McKenly called softly, in case the rest of the camp still slept. She placed her hand around his wrist to calm him. "It's alright."

Dean let out a breath and removed his arm from around her.

McKenly sat up next to Dean. "How'd you sleep?"

"Like crap." He said, rubbing hard at his neck.

McKenly looked around, only to find a rock behind her. She pushed herself up onto it and grabbed Dean's shoulders, pulling him towards her.

Dean hesitated, staying tense, but as McKenly started to put a well-needed pressure on the knots in his neck, he relaxed. A soft groan fell from between his lips.

"Good?" McKenly asked.

"Hell yeah."

McKenly continued the massage for a while longer, watching the rest of the group as they came awake.

Sam had been up for a while, reading his dad's journal intently and playing with the lanyard on it.

Ben and Haley were starting to wake around the dying fire. Haley stared into the flames for a long while like she was contemplating all that the hunters had told her. She quickly got up and made her way over to McKenly and Dean.

McKenly quickly removed her hands from Dean's shoulders, even after his sound of protest.

"I don't…" Haley started, confused and trying to find her words. "I mean, these types of things, they aren't supposed to be real." She continued to stumble over her words.

McKenly felt bad. She hated when she had to pull the veil from people's eyes and tell them what was really out there.

"I wish we could tell you different." Dean told her.

"How do we know it's not out there watching us?" Haley questioned.

"We don't." McKenly answered honestly. "But I'm pretty sure we're safe for now."

"How do you know about this stuff?"

Dean looked behind him at McKenly, showing her a half-smile before turning back to Haley. "Kinda runs in the family."

McKenly turned her head when she saw Sam make his way over to them. The four of them stood in a circle.

"So we've got half a chance in the daylight." Sam said. "And I for one want to kill this evil son of a bitch."

"Well, hell, you know I'm in." Dean said quickly. He looked to McKenly.

McKenly looked to Sam, who, with only a facial expression, questioned whether she was with them or not. "Of course." She answered. "I'm stuck in the middle of the woods with you guys. I kind of don't have a choice."

Sam smiled. "Good." He held out his dad's journal to show what they were working against.

Haley had waved Ben over so that he could see, as well.

"'Wendigo' is a Cree-Indian word." Sam explained. "It means 'evil that devours'."

"They are hundreds of years old." Dean added. "Each was once a man. Sometimes an Indian. Other times a frontiersman or a miner. Maybe a hunter." Dean's eyes glanced over at McKenly.

Haley looked to each of them. "How does a man turn into one of those things?"

"We'll it's really strange, actually." McKenly started. "During some insanely harsh winter, a guy finds himself starving. He's cut off from supplies or help. So eventually he becomes a cannibal to survive, eating other members of his tribe or camp."

"Like the Donner Party." Ben guessed.

"Exactly." McKenly smiled.

"Cultures all over the world believe that eating human flesh gives a person certain abilities. Speed, strength, immortality." Sam explained.

McKenly had opened her mouth to add on, but Dean talked over her.

"If you eat enough of it, over years, you becomes this less than human...thing." Dean said, for lack of a better term. "You're always hungry."

"So, if that's true, how can Tommy still be alive?" Haley asked.

"You're not gonna like it." Dean said, glancing to Sam and then McKenly. It was obvious that he didn't want to be the one to tell them.

McKenly rolled her eyes and looked to Haley. The blonde sighed. "More than anything, a wendigo knows how to last long winters without food. It's like a bear, but instead of just hibernating through the winter, wendigos go for years. When it is awake, they keep their victims alive." McKenly said, turning to Ben with hope. "It stores the bodies in its cave or hideout, whatever, so that it can feed whenever it gets hungry. If Tommy is alive, that's where he'd be."

"And that's where we need to track it to." Dean finished. He left the group, going towards what little was left from the camping gear.

"So how do we stop it?" Ben asked.

"That's the tricky part." McKenly said. "Guns and knives are pretty much useless. Weapons like that will only make it more angry and vengeful."

"So basically…" Dean held up a can of lighter fluid, a beer bottle, and a scrap from a t-shirt, "We gotta torch the sucker." Dean smirked at McKenly.

McKenly rolled her eyes and shook her head at him.

"Alright?" Dean questioned the group, earning nods from them. "We're moving out."

McKenly nodded to Dean and took to follow behind the group. She marched for the woods at the back of the line, checking the ground for tracks. McKenly noticed claw marks and fresh blood along the path.

"Dean." Sam called, leaning into a tree, examining the claw marks in the trunk.

Dean caught up to Sam, and the group stopped as the two were paused by the tree. "What is it?" Dean asked.

McKenly stood behind the boys, so she could see the trunk.

"You know, I was thinking." Sam pondered. "These claw prints. They're so clear and distinct."

McKenly nodded. "They were too obvious." She agreed. "Too easy to track. They were put there purposefully."

Sam nodded.

Growling sounded deep in the woods a second later. The hunters whipped around in their spots as they heard the trees rustle.

McKenly quickly looked to Haley, wondering if her and her brother were close by. She noticed something dropped to the brunette's shirt. McKenly's eyes moved upwards to where the drop came from. Her eyes bugged out when she saw Roy practically torn apart strung up in the tree. McKenly jumped back, her hand wrapping itself tightly around Dean's forearm.

Haley jumped out of the way just in time for the body to fall to the ground.

Dean pulled himself out of McKenly's grasp to check the body.

McKenly furrowed her brow, wishing Dean hadn't torn himself away. She felt a hand tighten around her own arm and she was being pulled in a certain direction. McKenly could barely see straight. So much was happening, too much was going on.

"C'mon, I gotcha." Sam said.

McKenly wasn't sure if he was talking to her though. A loud growl quickly brought her back to focus. McKenly heard it and immediately started to run on her own, even a little faster than the group. Once the growling had stopped, McKenly slowed, coming to a stop on a slight hill. She looked behind her, only seeing that Sam and Ben had been following her.

"Sam?" McKenly asked.

Sam paused in his running and put his hands on his knees.

The blonde took in short breaths. "Sam, where's Dean?"

Sam turned slightly in his spot, also seeing that it was just the three of them. "I - I don't know. He was right behind us. With Haley." Sam stumbled for words. "He was right behind us."

McKenly looked around, wide-eyed and in a panic. "No." she whispered before taking off running without warning. McKenly ran back in the direction that they had come from hoping to find him.

"McKenly!" Sam called after her, trying to get her to stop.

McKenly couldn't stop though. She needed to find Dean. When McKenly arrived back to the spot where Roy's body fell from the trees, she stopped. There was no one. Dean and Haley were both gone. "Dean!" McKenly shouted, not caring if the wendigo heard her. She turned in a single spot and stopped when something caught her eye. She bent down to pick it up. It was a piece of the glass Dean tried to use for his fire bomb.

McKenly's hand shook as she held the piece of glass.

"McKenly?"

Her head shot up at the sound of Sam's voice. McKenly stood up straight, eyes filling with small tears. She held the glass in the center of her palm to show Sam. "They're gone."

Sam slowly approached her, trying to take the glass from McKenly's hand, but that only made her hold the piece tighter.

"They're gone. It has them." McKenly didn't feel the pain as the pointed edges of the shard dug into her skin. She was trying, and failing miserably, to keep her cool for Ben.

"McKenly…"

The blonde took a large breath in and shouted. "Dean!" McKenly screamed again.

When there was no response, Ben yelled for his sister.

McKenly finally dropped the glass.

"McKenly, we've gotta fix your hand." Sam said to her.

McKenly shook her head, taking a few steps to find a path to follow. "I'm fine. We have to find Haley. And Dean."

"Mc - "

"I said, I'm fine!" She screeched, turning sharply to face him again.

Sam noticed the insane fire in her eyes and nodded. "Okay. We'll find them."

McKenly turned back to the trail, keeping a good distance between herself and the boys as she led them through the trees. Even though she didn't know where they were going, she had to keep going. Behind her, McKenly heard Sam and Ben talking about Roy and what might have been done to him. McKenly did everything in her to not think about any of it happening to Dean. She looked down at the dirt as she stepped, trying to find the wendigo's tracks. Instead, McKenly found something smaller. Orange. She furrowed her brow and knelt down to pick it up.

A peanut M&amp;M.

McKenly smiled. "Dean. You are a fucking genius."

Sam heard the blonde speak and took quick steps, coming up behind the blonde. "What is it?"

McKenly held the piece of candy between her fingers to show the boys.

Sam smirked. "It's better than breadcrumbs."

"You can say that again." McKenly nodded. She picked her head up, in search of more chocolates. When McKenly found them, that was the directions she led the boys in. The three walked for quite a long time before the candies stopped. McKenly looked up and a few yards in front of her was an entrance to a mine. "Guess this is it." She took a few steps towards it.

"McKenly, maybe we should - "

McKenly stopped for a moment, and looked back at Sam. "We've dealt with worse, Sammy." She shrugged. "Let's do this."

Sam nodded.

McKenly took the lead, ducking down to enter the mine. She grabbed her flashlight and flicked it on so they could see where they were headed. The blonde was so focused on getting through the maze of darkness, that she she didn't notice the growling that bounced off the walls.

Sam grabbed her arm and pulled her against a nearby wall. He pushed McKenly into the wall, standing her on the other side of Ben from which he took.

McKenly's heart was beating hard in her chest as she hurried to shut off her flashlight. She leaned her head back against the dirt walls.

Ben tried to peer around Sam to get a look at the wendigo, but when Sam noticed the boy about to scream he wrapped his hand around the boy's mouth.

The wendigo continued down a tunnel that was not connected to the one that the three were down.

McKenly peered around the boys to be sure that the monster was gone. She got Sam's attention and nodded to him. McKenly pushed off the wall and led them down a different corridor from the one the wendigo went. As the three walked along the tracks, McKenly could hear the wood creaking underneath their steps. She turned back to look at them, pointed to their feet, and put the same finger to her lips.

The three attempted to take a few more steps, but the floor kept creaking.

McKenly sighed. "Please don't tell me we entered an episode of Looney Tunes." She begged.

Before anyone could go any farther, the floor caved in, making them fall to the floor below.

McKenly groaned, realizing she practically fell right on top of Sam. "Yup, this is what I hoped wouldn't happen. Sorry, Sammy." She rolled off of the younger guy with a grunt.

"It's okay." Sam promised, pushing himself off of the ground.

The two heard Ben start to scream. They both shot up from the ground to find him.

McKenly rushed to his side and pulled him up. "Hey, what's wrong?" she asked, trying to calm him.

Ben stared down at the skull that was on the ground.

McKenly laughed.

"How are you not freaked out by that?" Ben asked.

"Honestly, kid, I've seen worse." She pat him on the shoulder and looked around, trying to figure out where they could be. As McKenly did, she saw a couple of bodies hanging by their arms. Instantly she recognized one. "Oh, my God." She hurried to get in front of him.

Dean coughed into her face, but it didn't seem to bother McKenly.

"Dean," McKenly sighed in relief. "Sam!" She called behind her.

"Haley!" Ben called, seeing the other body as his sister.

McKenly turned her focus back to the guy in front of her. She put her hands on either side of Dean's face to wake him. "Hey, Dean, you okay?"

Dean blinked a few times, slowly coming back into consciousness. He groaned. "Ken?"

"Yeah." McKenly dug in her pocket for her knife and flicked it open. "Yeah, Dean, it's me. Sammy, too." She looked behind her at Sam and looked to Haley. "Cut her down. I got the damsel in distress."

"Shut up." Dean grunted, as Sam did what he was told.

"Says the person I have the power to leave hanging." McKenly reached up on her tiptoes to cut the rope, her face very close to Dean's. She felt his eyes on her as she focused on the rope. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm… I'm good."

McKenly nodded. "Almost got it." Biting her lip as she cut the last thread. McKenly flipped her knife closed and put it back in her pocket so she could support Dean easier. She wrapped one of his arms around her shoulders and carried him to the wall to sit. Before McKenly could set him down gently, they both fell to the ground with a groan. "Urgh, I'm sorry." She wriggled herself out from underneath Dean and sat beside him.

Dean groaned again.

"You sure you're alright?"

"Mhmm." He replied, nodding. "Where is it?"

"Gone. At least for now it is." McKenly noticed Haley and Ben get up and find another person hanging by their wrists. She gave Sam a look to follow them and make sure everything was okay.

"Tommy?" Haley asked, touching the boy's face.

Tommy gasped awake, making Haley step back and scream.

"Ken." Dean said.

McKenly turned her head to see backpacks on the other side of Dean. Her eyes lit up and she got up to help dig through them. "Flare guns?" McKenly asked, taking out a couple and showing them to Dean.

Dean nodded and tried to push himself off of the ground.

"Slow down there, cowboy." McKenly said, quickly getting herself up to help him.

Dean still leaned against the wall for support as his legs got their strength back. "Sammy."

Sam turned his head and looked to his brother. "Flare guns?" He smiled. "Those'll work." Sam chuckled.

McKenly dug around for another one and Dean spun his around his forefingers. "Can we get out of here now?" Everyone agreed instantly.

With Tommy practically limping, Sam and Haley had grabbed one of his arms around their shoulders, helping to walk out.

Dean and McKenly led the group, both with the flare guns in their hands. Dean passed one of his off to his brother, just in case.

Growling sounded through the tunnels and the group stopped. All three hunter raised their flare guns, ready to shoot.

"Looks like someone's home for supper." Dean said, trying to be comedic.

"We'll never outrun it." Haley panicked.

McKenly bit her lip, looking back at the siblings, then to Dean. She nodded, mostly to herself, and took a step forward.

Dean's hand stopped her as it had grabbed her arm.

McKenly looked back to him with a furrowed brow. "What are you doing?"

"What are _you _doing?"

"I'm gonna draw it away."

"Like hell you are." Dean argued.

"C'mon, Dean. Someone has to do it." McKenly pulled her arm away from Dean. She looked back to Haley, Tommy, and Ben. "Someone has to get them out of here, while the others distract the wendigo."

Dean pursed his lips, not wanting to admit that she was right. He looked to Sam. "You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" Dean asked his brother.

"I think so." Sam said.

Dean paused another minute. "Alright. Listen to me." He said, turning to face the others. "Stay with Sam. He's gonna get you out of here."

"Are you guys crazy?" Haley questioned, looking between Dean and McKenly.

McKenly nodded, shrugging. "Little bit. But that comes with the job description." She looked to Dean, ready to go, and nodded.

"Chow time, you freakin' bastard!" Dean shouted to the wendigo.

McKenly followed after him as he moved down a separate hallway from the others. "Bring it on, dickface!" She shouted. The two of them continued down the tunnels, screaming loudly to draw out the monster. McKenly looked back briefly to make sure that Sam was leading the others out.

"Hey! You want some white meat, bitch! I'm right here!" Dean shouted as they paused, trying to figure out which way to go next.

McKenly listened to the silence, hoping to get some sort of inkling of where the wendigo was. "I think we should go back."

"Go back?"

"I don't hear it anymore. What if it caught on that we were trying to drag it out and it went after Sam?" McKenly asked. "We could be going the wrong way."

Dean thought about it for a minute before nodding. "Let's go." He said, before taking off running.

McKenly and Dean heard a shot go off and they started running faster.

"Sam!" They heard echoing through the walls.

McKenly got ahead of Dean and saw a hall that Sam was on the other end of, hiding the siblings.

The wendigo was in between them and Sam. It paused, exactly in the middle, put its arms out to the wide and roared loudly.

"We need a plan." Dean said.

McKenly caught her breath. "Trust me. I have a plan." She quickly turned into the tunnel and held up her flare gun. "Hey, asshole!" McKenly shouted at the monster.

The wendigo faced her, not expecting McKenly to fire off the shot. The flare hit the monster right in the stomach and it started to catch fire, burning it from the inside out.

McKenly dropped the gun from her hand, feeling the heat radiate from it. She cursed and backed away from it into Dean.

"What's wrong?" Dean asked.

McKenly stared down at her hand, but shook her head, looking back up at the wendigo as it burnt to a crisp. "Nothing." She hoped.

Dean looked to her in disbelief.

"Fine, I uh, I found your Molotov cocktail. Or what was left of it." McKenly showed him her palm. "I cut myself on it." When the monster fell to the floor, McKenly looked up at Sam. "Not bad for a crazy person." She said jokingly.

Haley looked to her, impressed.

**! #$# !**

When the group was finally out of the mine, they made their way back to the ranger's station. Once they were back in cell range, Dean called for a couple ambulances and explained the situation. The emergency vehicles were waiting there for them when they arrived.

Without saying a word to her, Dean grabbed McKenly's arm and led her to one of the ambulances.

"What gives?" McKenly asked, angrily.

"She cut her hand." Dean said to the EMT. Dean turned and walked away, leaving the girl alone with the technician.

The man picked up the blonde's hand, making her wince when he touched the burn. The EMT turned her arm to get a good look at it. "When did you get this burn?"

McKenly shrugged. "About a week ago."

The man in front of her shook his head. "It looks fresh. Are you sure it didn't just happen?"

"I'm sure." McKenly said shortly.

"Alright. I'll patch it up. But you should have it looked at in a few days."

"Yeah, I'll do that." She said, dismissively. The second the man was done tending to her wound, McKenly jumped out of the truck and walked over to Dean and Sam who were talking with Haley and Ben.

"Let's go." Haley said to Ben.

Ben nodded, looking to Sam and McKenly in appreciation.

McKenly nodded back. "You guys be careful if you're ever back out there. I'm sure there's not another _bear..._" She said, using their cover, "but you never know."

Haley leaned forward, kissing Dean on the cheek. "I hope you find your father." She smiled and Dean nodded back. Haley turned back, putting her arm around Ben's shoulders. "Thanks, Sam. McKenly."

McKenly showed a small smile, confused by what just happened between Dean and Haley. She cleared her throat as the two walked away. McKenly walked forward, pushing herself onto the Impala, sitting herself cross legged on it's trunk.

Sam came over and leaned on it in front of her. The three of them watched as the ambulance holding Tommy drove away.

"Man, I hate camping." Dean said, breaking the silence between the three.

"Me, too." Sam agreed.

McKenly nodded, but stayed quiet.

After another beat, Dean spoke again. "You guys know we're gonna find Dad, right?"

Sam sighed. "Yeah, I know." He said.

Dean looked back at McKenly, who was uncharacteristically quiet. "Ken?"

McKenly nodded. "I know. And we'll find the killer. Jess' and our parents'." She looked down into her lap at her own mention of her parents. "We're gonna make it right."

"Yes, we will." Dean agreed.

"But..." Sam started. "In the meantime, I'm driving."

McKenly smiled and looked to Dean.

Dean played with his keys in his hands like he was debating it.

"C'mon, Dean. Let the kid drive." McKenly coaxed. "You can sit in the back with me to get some sleep. I'll let you use me as a pillow."

Dean still wouldn't answer.

"At least until we get back to the motel." The girl added.

Dean nodded slightly, throwing the keys up in the air.

Sam caught them effortlessly and smiled. He pushed off the car looking to McKenly who sent him a wink.

Dean turned around, facing McKenly. "C'mon, Princess." He joked, picking her up from the trunk and throwing her over his shoulder.

McKenly smiled and shook her head.

Dean opened the back door and put McKenly down on the seat.

McKenly sighed, thankful to have a semi-comfortable seat to sit in. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back, drifting off into a quick nap.

**! #$# !**

_**I'm sorry that it has been so long. I really am. There is no excuse. But here's a chapter. I hope you enjoy. **_


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